Aeterno
by Urban Silver
Summary: They say that Alice Academy is a school for geniuses. That's not exactly the case though. Alice Academy is not just a school for geniuses. It's a school for wizards.
1. Chapter 1

_They say that Alice Academy is a school for geniuses. With their state of the art security system and a twenty foot high brick walls enclosing the 1000 acre school, it is said that even parents have a hard time seeing their child._

_That's not exactly the case though. Alice Academy is not _just_ a school for geniuses. _

_It's a school for wizards._


	2. Chapter 2

**It's been a while since I've been back on this site. If anyone recognizes my name, which I doubt, they'll probably remember the stories that I've never finished. I'm sorry! So far I dont have a clue where any of those stories are headed, because of my poor lack of planning, but I promise that this one is different! **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>I was trying hard not to sleep as Jinno explained the dreary process for casting a proper pig summoning spell. I didn't see how knowing how to summon a pig would help me in life, but Jinno seemed to think it was important enough to drone about.<p>

While Jinno's monotonous voice drowned out the snoring of the students in class, I stared out the window that was to my left. There was only ten more minutes left of class and I couldn't wait to go outside and meet up with Hotaru, who was in a different section than me. I needed to eat too since the only thing I had this morning was a piece of old candy that I found in the bottom of my bag.

"Miss. Sakura, please tell the class when the Moonstone potion was invented." Jinno's voice broke my daydreaming and I slid my eyes from the clouds outside to Jinno's impatient face. He had thinning white hair and a face that was always set in a frown; I don't think I ever saw him with a different expression.

I hadn't noticed that he changed subjects and by looking at his face, he knew it too. I sighed. "It wasn't invented, it was found accidentally in a cave in Madagascar, when a bat flew by and knocked Maguire's bag of silver into a pot of Twilight Night potion in 1798."

I smiled in satisfaction at the teacher's sour face and did a little dance as the bell finally rang. I gathered my stuff and stuffed them into my book bag. Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I walked over to my friends that were waiting for me at the door.

"That was so cool how you answered Mr. Jinno's question Mikan!" one of my friends, Anna, squealed as we walked to our usual spot for lunch. Anna was a cute and petite girl, with flaming pink hair that hung in ringlets around her heart shaped face.

"Did you see his face when you practically repeated his lecture back to him?" laughed a blue haired girl to my right.

Anna nodded her head in agreement. "I know Nonoko! Why are you so smart Mikan Sakura?" she playfully chastised me.

I shook my head. "Do you think he'll ever stop trying to get me in trouble?"

The girls looked at each other. "Never," they said simultaneously. We all burst out giggling.

"You know he had it out for you ever since you slammed that pie in his face," remarked Nonoko. By now we reached out destination, the edge of the northern woods, where we always eat our lunch. Hotaru was already waiting for us there under the shade of the trees.

She looked up when she heard our laughter and put down her chopsticks. "What did Jinno do this time?" she asked.

I shrugged. "You know, the usual." I sat down next to her.

Hotaru rolled her eyes. "When is that man ever going to give up?"

"I hope never, or else class will be such a bore," said Anna, sitting down on one of the boulders near us. Nonoko leaned against a tree and nodded her head in agreement.

"Yea, Mr. Jinno's class is more fun this way. I wish you were in our class too Hotaru! Why do you have to be a Special Star?" Nonoko whined.

"I wouldn't settle for anything less," she replied coolly. We all laughed at that, even Hotaru smiled a little.

In Alice Academy, there is a system called a star level. This system basically separates the students into ranks based on their intelligence and magic casting abilities. It's made up of five ranks. The lowest level is called the no-star. This title is usually given to infants or kids in kindergarten, who are not old or strong enough to cast spells. The next level is one-star, usually held my elementary students. The middle rank is two-star, which means you're average. The people who excel are placed in three-stars, which is the rank that Anna, Nonoko, and I are in.

The only way for a student to receive three stars is if you have a special power called Alice. Anna's Alice is magical cooking. She can cook anything she wants and it comes out exactly how she wants it. Sometimes her food comes with a magical power or side effect. I remember one time when she baked a pile of ginger bread man for Christmas, and they came out of the oven walking and talking. Imagine trying to eat that. Nonoko's Alice is chemistry, it works basically the same as Anna's but it focus is centered on chemistry, like making potion or medicine. So in a nut shell, an Alice is just something that you can do or control above the level of an average wizard.

Last but not least are the elite Special Stars. This star is only given to the student's who holds a high position in society in and out of our gates. Hotaru is a Special Star because her parents own Imai Corp., where all of the state of the art technologies are invented, and Hotaru, with her inherited Alice of invention, is going to receive all of that. They're also the ones who made the security system for the school. The Special Star is a rank that you are born in to, so there is no way that a three-star can get promoted to a Special Star.

Unless they get picked to be an Aeterno.

The heir and heiress of the Special Star are very busy people. They have to take advanced classes, master magic, and learn about the businesses that they may take over. To help lessen the stress, the school invented the Aeterno system.

The students from Special Star can select a student of a three-star rank to be their servant, manager, and tutor, called an Aeterno. The person who chose you is your new master and you are required to obey the master's whishes. In return, you get raise to a Special Star and get to take their classes.

Special Stars take different classes than the rest of the ranks and they study in a different building and live in a different dorm. They also have lots of privileges, which is why there is a lot of competition among the three-stars for this position. I like the idea of being a Special Star, but at an expense of becoming someone's slave? Not a selling point. Also once you get chosen to become someone's Aeterno, you cannot decline. You have to take on the role until you are fired, once you are, you are demoted to a one-star, and have to work twice as hard to get back at the top again.

Not all Special Stars have an Aeterno though. Like Hotaru; she hates it when other people constantly follows you around and she goes ballistic if anyone sees what she is working on in her lab, so she chooses to go on without one.

Anna handed me my lunch, and my stomach started to growl as the delicious smell of food wafted up my nose. "Did you guys hear about the Tea Party?" asked Nonoko, stabbing a tomato.

"I did! I did!" A squeal came from the pinkette. "It's going to be next week!" Apart from the Special Stars, the students at Alice Academy were only allowed to see their parents during this occasion so we will have no distractions for mastering our talents.

"Are you going to skip again Mikan?" Hotaru asked me.

I looked at her over my chicken Panini. "Yea, there's no one for me to see anyway. I might stop by to say see your parents thought." I've known Hotaru's parents ever since I was little.

"You should come and meet my parents too!" said Anna.

Nonoko looked at me pleadingly. "Mine too. Please Mikan; it's too sad when you have to stay by yourself."

These guys cared for me way too much, I thought as I smiled fondly. "Sure why not." Their faces brightened. "I'm going to get something to drink," I said. I stood up and headed for the cafeteria.

* * *

><p><strong>Like it? Hate it? I would really appreciate reviews and criticisms! <strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**So I just realized that the last chapter got cut off at the end so here it is! Sorry about this!**

* * *

><p>I breathed in deeply, enjoying the sun and the light breeze that blew in my direction. There were no clouds in the sky and I admired the stretch of blue. My shiny black penny loafers made a nice sound as I walked. I felt so lucky to have my friends. Their love for me made up for my lack of family.<p>

I never knew my parents, as far as I can remember I lived with my grandpa in a nice neighborhood when I was six. One day my grandpa died, and I was left alone on the streets for a year. Being thrust into a dangerous community, I learned to fight. If I didn't I would most likely have been killed and that's how I also developed an attitude that could be a little rough at times (mostly with Jinno). I stumbled into Hotaru's dad and he took me into his family.

Things got better when I discovered that I had an affinity for magic and could enter the same school as Hotaru, who I surprisingly got along with. That's where I became friends with Anna and Nonoko and pretty soon the past was just that, the past.

It took a while for me to notice that I strayed from the path and was standing in front of a big cherry blossom tree. It was in full bloom even thought winter had just ended, thanks to the gardening club and their magical ability with plants.

I smiled at the beauty of the pink blossoms when a strong just of wind hit me and blew up my short skirt. Cursing the people who made this regulation uniform, I scrambled to force it down, but froze when I heard a voice above me.

"Polka dots, huh," it said.

I got a whiplash turning my head towards the branches and saw something that I missed that first time in the storm of pink petals. A person. Not just a person, a guy. Embarrassed and angry I used magic to break the branch he was sitting on, but to my disappointment, he jumped and landed nimbly on his feet.

He stood ten feet away from me and the mean words that I was about to throw at him got caught in my throat. The guy was devastatingly handsome, with jet black hair that lay ruffled on his head, like he just woke up, and a face that looked smooth as marble. But the most striking feature of his face was his eyes, a deep dark mysterious crimson.

"Like what you see?" I snapped out of my trance and saw that he was smirking.

"N-no," I stuttered like an idiot. "You just surprised me." He arched his brow, showing that he knew I was lying.

"Not as surprising as your kid-like underwear." I almost forgot about him seeing under my skirt. I felt blood rushing to my face. "Do you want me to recommend you a store? I'll even help you pick out some nice ones." I didn't even know that I moved, until I was standing in front of him and my hand made contact with his face.

"No thanks pervert," I spat out. Almost a second later I heard a voice calling my name.

"Sakura!" It was a male's voice. I turned around and knew immediately that I was in trouble. It was Jinno. I thought about running for it, but the guy behind me grabbed my arm and forced me to face him. His expression looked almost evil as he leaned his tall frame down and whisper in my ear.

"You're going to regret that." I felt a shiver run down my back and knew that he was going to live up to that threat.

"Sakura!" I jumped and pulled my arm away, it felt warm and tingly. Jinno was standing next to me with steam practically coming out of his ears. "What do you think you are doing!" he yelled. I was too unnerved to answer.

He turned to the black haired guy. "Mr. Hyuuga, please excuse this student. I will make sure she is punished accordingly." He sent a glare my way.

I just realized what he said and jumped to defend myself. "Whoa, wait. Why do I have to be punished? He's the one being indecent!" I pointed out.

Jinno lashed back, "Don't you dare blame this on Mr. Hyuuga!" I jumped back a bit as lighting started crackling around him, revealing his Alice. "You have been getting away with your rudeness and cocky remarks up until now, but you have gone too far this time."

"But-"

"Enough! Detention for a month!" he thundered.

"What?" I yelled back.

"One more remark and I will strip you to a two star." That clamped me up.

I stood there fuming under the cherry tree as I watched Jinno escort the pervert to the infirmary.

* * *

><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed!<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Here the next chapter! I didnt really edit it throughly, so sorry for the mistakes that might be in there! I would like to thank everybody that read and reviewed my stories! I really appreciate it. :)**

**Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

><p>"So," Anna drew out the word, letting it hang in the air, "what happened?" We were walking back to our dorm, Nonoko and Hotaru already went ahead, while Anna waited for me to get the times for my detention.<p>

"You totally ditched us at lunch and when we saw you in the classroom later, you looked ready to blow someone up that we a bit afraid to talk to you." She shuddered a bit. I didn't know if she did because she was cold or because she was remembering the expression on my face. "I heard you got detention from Jinno," Anna said.

I sighed, "Yea, I've got detention for a month, but I don't want to talk about why." Just thinking about the incident made me angry. How could Jinno give me detention when he was the one looking up my skirt? I wanted to strangle both of them; Jinno and the pervert.

"A month? That's a lot! Mr. Jinno must be really mad to give out that many detentions.

"I feel sorry for you." Anna sympathized. She didn't bring up the topic again for the rest of the way. When we entered the girls' dorm, there was commotion throughout the hallways.

"What's going on?" I asked out loud. Anna's confused face matched my own.

"Anna! Mikan!" We looked towards the caller and saw Nonoko and Hotaru pushing through the crowd of girls to get to us. Nonoko has an excited face and I could see that Hotaru had a big expensive camera with her.

"Guess who's in the lounge?" asked Nonoko gleefully, yet a little breathlessly, when she reached us.

"Someone really important and popular since Hotaru's here too," I said. Hotaru stayed in a separate dorm just for Special stars.

"Right! Its Natsume Hyuuga and Ruka Nogi," she told us. I heard a gasp next to me.

"No way! No way! I wanna go see!" The pinkette started pulling on my sleeve and lead me between the bodies of girls to the lobby with Hotaru and Nonoko close behind.

"So who are these people?" I asked Hotaru as we forced our way.

She rolled her eyes and said, "Only you would ask that." I gave her a little nudge and she continued. "They have the reputation of being the hottest guys in the whole campus. A title that they rightfully deserve.

"They also belong to the most powerful magic wielding families. Naturally, they're also Special Stars."

Our group finally arrived in the lounge and surprisingly it was quieter in here than in the hallways. There was a cluster of girls surrounding one of the many sofas in the room, whispering and giggling to each other. As we got closer we could see the two males sitting on the seats. I couldn't see much of the boys but then the girls shifted, giving me a pretty good view.

On the left was a pretty blond boy with a small rabbit in his arms. His large blue eyes looked a bit uncomfortable as he started at the giggling crowd around him. "He's Ruka Nogi," Nonoko informed me as she saw me looking at him. She pointed to the other figure, "And that's Natsume Hyuuga." My eyes widened as I saw the familiar messy black hair and crimson eyes. As if he could sense me, his eyes locked in to mine and I could see a smirk caressing his face. He got up suddenly and the girls whined, thinking he was going to leave. Instead he walked right towards me.

"Knew I find you here," he said as he approached me.

I was speechless for the moment, like how I was when I first met him, but soon the memory of our first meeting came back to me and I remembered the glare and the warning that he gave me when I slapped him. I also remembered that he was the cause for my punishment with Jinno.

"Don't you feel smart?" I retorted, my voice thick with sarcasm and anger, "Who would of thought to find a girl at a girls dorm?" Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hotaru's camera going off.

"Look who's a comedian?" he whispered, "I told you you're going to regret what you did, so I'm here to fulfill my promise."

I shivered a bit. "Isn't Jinno giving me detention enough?"

He just smiled and reached his hand towards my face. I gasped when he touched my ear and I felt heat coursing through it. I jerked away thinking he was going to hurt me and covered my ear with my hand. My heat thudded as I felt something cold and metallic around my earlobe.

I stared with numb shock as he called Ruka and walked out of the room.

The next second I felt two hands grabbing me and dragging me out of the lounge by a separate door when the room exploded with screams and shouts.

I was taken up to the top floor, where the three stars resided, and thrust in to a room. A familiar scent of chemicals washed over me, notifying me that I was in Nonoko's room. The lights turned on behind me and I turned around facing my friends.

"Mikan," Nonoko began slowly, like she was unsure of what to say, "What happened back there?"

Before I could even open my mouth, Hotaru interjected. "How do you know Hyuuga?" she asked. So began the tale of what happened at today's lunch.

"No way! So that's why Mr. Jinno was mad at you," Anna squealed when I finished my story.

"Yea," I answered back from the bathroom. I was checking out my reflection in the mirror, more specifically my ear, to see what kind of damage Hyuuga caused. Instead of the horrifying images I had, all that changed was the silver cuff pierce on my ear. I was small but thick, shaped like a flame and it wrapped around my ear snuggly.

I walked away from the mirror and to my friends who were meeting in Nonoko's living room. "Guys, what does this mean?" I asked pointing to my ear.

The three of them stared at me; the Hotaru broke the silence, "Only you wouldn't know." She stood from the couch and looked me in the eye. "The shape of the earring is the crest of the Hyuuga family. That earring marks you as his property." I stared at her, praying that she wasn't implying about what I think she was.

"It means you're his Aeterna."

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks for reading!~<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**I recieved so many reviews this time that I worked extra hard on this chapter! I got one that said that my chapters are too short, so I tried to make this longer! Hope you like, and thanks for the feedback everyone :D**

* * *

><p>That night I stood on my balcony and watched the twinkling lights of Tokyo. The lights looked so far and foreign, even though they were right outside the walls that surrounded the Academy. A feeling of seclusion and loneness washed over, it's a feeling I often had, a feeling that I remember having when I was young, even though I don't recall why.<p>

Today was probably the worst day I've had since I came to this school. I dreaded tomorrow and the changes that it'll bring. Just as I finally got used to my new life and environment, one guy had to ruin it all. I sighed and went in to my room to go to sleep. I had a feeling that I would need all my energy to deal with Natsume Hyuuga.

Pretty soon I awoke to the sound of my alarm ringing. My morning began like any other. I woke up and realized that I only had ten minutes till class starts. I rushed to get ready, throwing on my clothes and quickly brushing my teeth. I was tightening my tie that was required with our uniforms, when there was a knock at the door. I grabbed my bag, marched to the door and opened it.

"Morning guys," I greeted Anna and Nonoko as I stepped out of the door and closed it. "Let's get going, we're going to be late."

The two looked at each other uncertainly. "Are you sure Mikan?" Anna asked.

"Yea, you're and Aeterna now. Technically you're a Special Star," Nonoko added.

I scoffed. "Well that jerk didn't tell me anything, so I'm going to class with you guys." I whirled around and headed to the elevators with the reluctant girls following close behind.

When I arrived to the classroom that whole room fell quiet. The deafening silence followed me to my seat and it reminded me of the first day that I came to this school. I enrolled here at the start of middle school, and for this school it is unusual that a student came so late. The Academy keeps a close eye on the outside world and if there is any sign of a person having magic, they go and investigate, so most of the students come during the early elementary years.

As soon as I got to my seat, the peace was broken my whispering between the students. Most were pointing their fingers towards me, so no need to wonder at what they were discussing. That soon stopped when the door opened and reveled Jinno and Natsume Hyuuga. I swallowed thickly and tried not to make eye contact with either one of them, playing "if-I-can't-see-you-then-you-can't-see-me."

But obviously that didn't work. Jinno briskly walked over in front of my table and gave me a discussed face. "You don't belong in this class anymore," he said. "You are an Aeterna now and are required to take classes in the Special Star building." He reached inside his waistcoat pocket and took out a shiny gold badge shaped like a star, bigger than the three stars I have on my uniform right now.

"I do not see how this is a punishment for what you have done," he glanced over to the door where Natsume stood, leaning on the door frame, "but I will trust Mr. Hyuuga's judgment."

I glared at both of them. "I refuse." Jinno blinked slowly as if I was a slow child, which I might be.

"You can't refuse," he said. "The only way you can go back to the regular department is if your master relieves you from your Aeterna duties. Even then you will be demoted to a single star."

"I never head of that!"

"Well now you just did." He looked at me sternly. "So I suggest you quickly get out of here and so to your new class."

He made me take off the stars I currently had on, which I did slowly, and he reluctantly handed me the Special badge to pin on. Jinno cleared his throat, "Now that you are a Special Star and out of my class, you will no longer serve detention." He turned on his heels and walked to the front of the room.

At least one good thing was coming out of this; I won't have to deal with Jinno anymore. I sighted and gathered my stuff and looked over my shoulder to my friends who were giving me encouraging smiles. I tried returning it, but my face was kind of stuck in its current expression of annoyance, panic, and a little fear. I heard stories from Hotaru about the other Aeternos before me, who were fired after being harassed emotionally and taunted by Natsume. Most or all of these cases involved the hair or part of the clothing getting burned by the powerful fire caster.

"Ready to go Polka Dots?" he asked, smirking, as I make my way over to him.

I rolled my eyes and walked out the door. "Don't call me that," I warned when we were a good distance away from the classroom.

"It's not my fault you were wearing childish underwear." He shook his head. "I don't know anybody who still wears cotton ones."

I whirled around. "Be quiet!" I yelled, feeling my face flush with heat. I been thinking about getting new underwear for a while, but never quite had the time, but that didn't mean that he could make fun of me like that.

Natsume just calmly raised his brow at my outrage. "Are you talking back to me?" he remarked, his voice low and dangerous. I felt shivers down my spine as I remembered the warnings I got from Hotaru about his temper. "You are my Aeterna and I am your master, you have to obey and respect me no matter what."

Collecting the little strength I have I looked straight in to his flaming eyes. "I don't care," I spat, "I didn't ask for this, you forced me."

He leaned in towards my ear. "Another retort? Looks like you need to be punished." He grabbed a lock of my hair and a distinct smell of something burning wafted up my nose. I gasped and pulled away from him, using magic to put the flame out. But no matter how hard I tried it wouldn't go out, in the end I focus on the moisture in the air and concentrated it on the ends of my burning hair to drench it.

I mild look of surprise flashed across Natsume's eyes as I reverted my hair back to what it was before the attack. But it was gone in a second and instead he showed me his mocking smile. "You might want to watch your mouth, Polka, or it's going to get a lot worse than that next time." He straightened and walked off towards the special section and I followed slowly behind, wondering what I ever did to deserve this.

I was really getting really getting tired of people getting quiet and staring at me whenever I'm in a classroom. I mean, yea, I'm Natsume's Aeterna now, get over it. Not that I wanted to be his slave or anything. But, when I walked in to the Special Star class and met with the curious and sometimes hostile looks, I hoped that it was going to happen every time I came here.

My eyes sought a familiar face and I found one over by the table in front of the room. I left Natsume and flung myself at Hotaru, cause a ripple of murmurs from the staring crowd.

"Hotaru!" I cried out and hugged her.

She sighed and rebuffed with, "Let go of me unless you want me to test my new invention on you." I knew from past experiments that her inventions were made to cause pain, making quickly back off. The purple haired beauty glanced over my shoulder."You know that you're not supposed to leave your master like that," she told me as she looked at her desk, her attention glued to the mechanical pieces that she was tinkering with.

I looked around the room and saw my so-called-master sitting in the back row next to the pretty blond boy that came with him to the girls lounge last time. I was going to tell Hotaru that I could do whatever I wanted when I heard a cold voice behind me.

"You're first day as an Aeterna and you've already abandoned your post."

I turned around and my eyes widened. "Jinno?" I stuttered. My shock was probably evident on my face.

"That's Mr. Jinno," he replied. "And from the way you look, what my brother has said about you is true." He glared down at me, as if he was analyzing a bug that he wanted to get rid of, but didn't want to squish and ruin his expensive shoes.

"Brother?" I inquired.

"The teacher that you know is my twin," he told me.

"Oh God," I muttered, "There's two of them?" The only thing that I took joy from in this ordeal was getting out of Jinno's class; I should have known that I wouldn't be able to get away from him.

Jinno number two raised his brow as the students who heard my remark snickered, with me or against me, I didn't know. I backed slowly and walked to the empty seat next to Natsume. He had his legs propped up on the desk, the ones that looked like a big picnic bench, and was smirking at me. I ignored it and sat down while Jinno, who decided to ignore me for now, got the class settled and began the lecture. I shivered when he spoke; even his voice sounded the same.

I groaned and let my head hit the table. "Why me?" I whispered.

"Ms. Sakura," Jinno called out, I stood up straight and looked at him. "Do you think that you are so great that you do not need to pay attention to my lesson?" The whole class turned and stared at me. Figures that he would start picking on me already.

"No sir," I answered. I didn't want to start a war with this Jinno so soon, so I played it safe. I knew that a fight was inevitable and that we were going to clash soon.

"Hmm," he hummed. Some of the girls that gave me death glares when I took a seat next to Natsume now gave me smiles. Smiles that were filled with venom. I bit my lip, hoping that he would just let it go, but no such luck. "Come to the board and solve this equation that I was explaining how to solve."

I stared helplessly at him but he only beckoned me forward. I grudgingly dragged myself to the front, cursing the evil teacher in my head. I obviously haven't been listening to his lesson but the problem on the board didn't seem that complicated. I gripped the marker that Jinno held out with a victorious look on his face and started working out the problem.

It only took me a few seconds to come up with an answer. I faced Jinno and saw the shocked look on his face. "Well?" I asked rather impatiently.

"Its correct," he spit out. I gave back the marker and went back to my seat, this time Natsume looked at me with amusement in his eyes. I didn't know what he thought was so funny, but I didn't care to find out. I was just glad that I avoided a self degrading speech from this Jinno as the other Jinno usually gave me on the off chance that he beat me. From how his face formed disgust whenever he looked at me, I knew this wouldn't be the last.

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks for reading!<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you to EVERYONE who reviewed my stories! They gave me the motovation and inspiration I needed to keep on writing! I would like to thank the Anonymous Reviewer as well. **

**Here a new chapter! I tried making it long, so hope you enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Soon enough it was lunch time and Natsume's table got surrounded by a group of boys. "Nice Aeterna you've caught yourself Natsume!" a boy with sandy blond hair energetically exclaimed. "I've never seen Jin-Jin so frazzled before."<p>

"Yea this one looks like it has potential. Unlike the last girl," agreed a buzz cut teen levitating the table in front of us. He connect the tables together on the front so now it actually did look like a big picnic table that you might find at a park.

"Nice to meet you Ms. Sakura, I'm Yuu Tobita," a quiet voice introduced formally. It belonged to a boy with golden hair and auburn eyes. He had round glasses on and seemed the shortest of the group, and reminded me of a secretary.

I took the hand that he held out and shook it. "Nice to meet you too, Yuu. You can just call me Mikan." I offered him a smile at him.

"Mikan, eh? That's a nice name. I'm Koko by the way." The sandy haired kid happily grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously. "Yuu's my Aeterno," he informed me. Well Yuu certainly looked his role.

"If you talk any louder you'll make me deaf." The levitator guy slapped Koko on the head. He turned to me and gave me flirty smile. "I'm Mochu."

I laughed lightly and looked to the guy on Natume's left. He was there since the beginning of class but I never had the chance to talk to him yet. He blushed when he saw me looking. "My name is Ruka," he choked out. He had blond hair that was almost white and clear blue eyes that he kept on the rabbit on his lap. He definitely was not Japanese.

"Are you guys Natsume's friends?" I asked, surprised that he actually had some with his attitude.

Koko's eyes sparkled when he answered, "Yup! We've been friends since elementary, but if you ask him, he'll say were just following him." He gave me a dramatic eye roll. "Ruka and Natsume have been friends before they came to the academy," he continued. "Also, his attitude isn't that bad when you get to know him." He told me this last part like he was answering a question, which was weird because I didn't mention my surprise for Natsume' friends out loud. "Looks like we've got a sharp one here." I jumped and Koko gave a suspicious Cheshire grin.

"If you have any questions about being an Aeterna, feel free of ask me," Yuu interjected, breaking off my thoughts.

"Thanks," I replied with genuine appreciation.

"Mikan." An unemotional Hotaru was suddenly by my side, making me jump for the second time. "Are you ready to go?"

"Oh!" I forgot that Anna and Nonoko were waiting for us. "Sure, let's go." I stood up to leave but a hand grabbed my wrist.

"You can't go yet," Natsume said.

"Why not?" I asked slowly. The others at the table fell silent.

"You have to get my lunch."

"I have to get your lunch? Why can't you get it yourself?" I demanded.

Before Natsume could retort Yuu got up. "Don't worry they bring the lunches up to the classroom, you just need to serve it to him." I was about to tell him that he was missing the point but the doors opened and workers poured in, pushing carts filled with food. Soon they had a buffet set up.

I saw all of the other Aeternos, easily differentiated by their earrings, get up. I also noticed that none of the masters went with them. I glanced down at my "master" and asked, "What do you want?"

He smirked. "Guess."

"How d-," I started to say but Yuu grabbed my arm and pulled me away.

"You have to make sure to keep your temper in check, Mikan," he advice as soon as we were out of earshot.

"Why?" I asked as I grabbed one of the gold rimmed plates.

"Because you are his Aeterna and he is your master. You are bonded to him and have to obey no matter what, especially if he is Natsume Hyuuga." He looked at me sympathetically. "I didn't want to tell you this, but your Natsume's eleventh Aeterna this year. He's getting tired of disappointments, so you're going to have to work hard to keep him happy."

I let to information sink. Eleven Aeternas? We've only been in school for a couple of months too, how could he go through and ruin that much girls? And what did Yuu mean my "disappointments?' Was Natsume looking for something?

Instead of the questions raging in my head I voiced, "It's not like I chose to be an Aeterna, he forced me."

Yuu paused in the middle of scooping pasta on to his plate. "He did?"

"Yea, I have no idea what he's thinking."

There was a few seconds of silence and then Yuu cleared his throat. "Natusme doesn't like sweets and likes things with lots of flavor. So, get him something that has a lot of spice." I almost forgot about the empty plate in my hands and I nodded following his advice. We walked back to table where the boys were failing at starting a conversation with Hotaru.

Natsume looked like he dozed off, so I slammed the food on the table and was satisfied when he jumped. "Bon Appetite," I said and grabbed Hotaru.

"Took you long enough," she muttered. I rolled my eyes and nudged her playfully.

"Come on, it wasn't my fault and you know it." WE walked out of Special building and into the bright sun. She didn't respond and walked ahead. I sighed, she could see right through me. I learned new information today and all the events of the day were putting my mind in turmoil. I was glad she gave me space and time to sort everything out.

I was forced out of a life that I was used to and thrown in to a new one that was completely alien to me. I wasn't sure if I could handle being an Aeterna.

Apart from the inquisition that Anna and Nonoko, my first day went off finished without anything dramatic happening. It was a couple days before anything happened and when it did it would of course involve fan crazed girls.

I squeaked as arms pulled me into an empty classroom and I was about to unleash a tidal wave of magic when I saw who the attackers were. "Oh," I said in disgust. "What do you want?" The two girls in front of me looked like they were trying to imitate Barbie. One had light strawberry pink hair while the other had a tangle of green hair that I was sure wasn't natural; they had complimentary eyes that matched their hair color.

"We're here to warm you," the green one viciously snarled. I remembered her name being Sumire because Koko called out her name and said something about water and cats that got a few chuckles out the class and a shriek from Sumire. Her Aeterno stood up then, a massive guy who had bulging muscles, who I learned was Andrei. When I asked Ruka if he was actually a student, he gave me a shrug and said no one knew, all the information they had on the guy was that he was Russian and that he could lift a truck, without magic.

Andrei wasn't here now as far as I could see and the other girl called back my attention. "We didn't do anything earlier because we were seeing how you would turn out," she said in a sugary fake voice. "It was worse than we thought."

"What was?" I asked, playing dumb. I really didn't have time for this. Today's first class was Jinno, and while these two wouldn't get in trouble, I would, and I had a feeling that that was part of their plan too.

"I don't know how you've became Natsume's Aeterna, but you can't stay," she said, trailing a pink nail down my face. How much pink could a person stand?

"Look, I don't know who you are, but can you just talk to Natsume about this? I really don't have time today." I tried to walk past them to the door but they didn't budge. Instead they pushed me back until the back of knees hit the table and I fell on top of it.

"You better take this seriously," Sumire warned. "Luna is being nice by giving you a chance to leave without getting hurt. Don't be like the others who went against us." Her eyes glowed with evil. But I wasn't really concerned because what she said stuck a cord. Maybe Natsume wasn't the only one to blame for his disappearing Aeternos.

"Sumire," the girl, whose name I now knew, gave her a look that told her that she said too much. "Whatever," Luna stated. "Just makes sure that by tomorrow you're gone." With that the girls left the room, their heels clacking down the hall.

I sat at that table in disbelief, but then I realized that I was going to be late. I ran out the room and down the length of the hall and made it in class with still a minute to spare. The first thing I noticed was that everyone was looking at me and the second was that Koko was waving his arms from Natsume's seat, with the owner nowhere to be seen.

"Mikan!" Koko ran up to me. "Natsume said to tell you that has in the principal's office and you need to get there as soon as possible."

"Why? Did he get in trouble?" I asked.

Koko grinned. "Nope, his dad and grandfather are here."

I groaned inwardly. Great, I get to meet the adult versions of my evil master. I waved to good bye to Koko and Yuu, I also waved to Hotaru but she was too busy reading a book.

The teachers had their own building for offices and another building next to that for dorms. The office building was one story and it was made out of red bricks covered in ivy, which gave the place an antique feeling. However, the inside was more modern and was made bigger by magic.

The lady sitting behind the desk in front of the entrance doors smiled and gave me a candy as I passed her. I popped the grape soda confection in my mouth and continued the familiar way to the principal's office.

The place was crawling with people today, getting ready for the Tea Party. Sending invitations to the parents was a tricky business. Most wizards lived in seclusion, away from normal people's eyes, sometimes in magical lands. Those places didn't have an address nor was it on a map. That made the job an impossible task.

I imagined that the elementary and middle schools were having the same problem. Our academy had a principal for each school. Both very mysterious. The middle school principal is a female. There are always rumors about her, the most popular one is the fact that she only likes girls and if any boys come near her isolated guarded palace, they will get thrown into her dungeon. The elementary principal is just as arcane. None of the students have seen him before, and no one knows anything about him. Even the teachers refuse to talk about him.

The head of the high school, however, was the most normal of the three. The students loved him and he got along with everyone in the school.

I arrived in front of a large oak door decorated with a golden plaque with the owners name engraved. I wasn't sure if I should go in or not, so I decided to wait for Natsume to come out. There were some chairs lined up against the wall and I made a move to sit on one of them, but I saw that it was occupied by a young girl. She was staring at me intently like she was trying to burn a whole in my clothes. Considering the type of school this was, I wouldn't put it past her.

He eyes were a shade of warm brown, but her hair was pitch black, cut in a stylish bob. She reminded me of someone, which oddly put me in a bad mood.

"-tume's Aeterna?"

I was so zoned in to figuring out who she looked like, I didn't notice her speak. "Huh?" I replied stupidly.

She gave a little giggle. "Are you Natsume's Aeterna?" The girl had a high voice that made her sound like she was younger than her actual age.

I nodded slowly, unsure if it was safe to answer such a dangerous question. Natsume had a lot of fan girls on campus, and some, like Sumire and Luna, have already warned me about not getting "too close" to their deity. As if I wanted to be closer than a three mile radius from him.

The dark haired girl beamed. "Go on in. He's probably getting lectured by Grandfather right not and would, assumedly, appreciate a diversion."

I had no idea what she was talking about, but I wasn't in the mood to talk, so I heeded her and knocked on the door. Without waiting for a response, I pulled the door outwards and walked in, shutting it shut behind me.

There was a trio of men sitting in front of the principal's desk. As the girl had described Natsume was getting an earful, and by a person who looked like a replica of him. If Natsume was old, had graying hair, and covered in wrinkles, that is.

Another man with light brown hair, tied in a loose pony hair, was trying to calm down the older man. None of them noticed that I entered the room until Principal Yukihara cleared his throat loudly, causing the group to settle down instantly. Natsume looked at me with what I thought was relief, which backed up the comment that the girl had made outside.

"Welcome Mikan."

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks again!~<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**There's no school today so I decided to post a new chapter! I'm trying to work towards longer chapters, but this one is still short, so sorry about that! Thanks for the support as always, and hope you enjoy!**

* * *

><p>"Welcome Mikan," Principal Yukihara began. Over the years the head of the school and I have gotten pretty close. It started when Jinno realized that sending me to detention didn't work in fixing my attitude towards him, it only made it worse, he decided to send me to the principal, hoping that he would talk some sense in to me.<p>

Before that day I've never met the man before, and I was afraid of what I would find. I was kind of disappointed when I opened the door and I found a rather normal looking human in front of me. With all the mysteriousness that the three heads give out, I was kind of expecting something shocking. The only thing that was off about him was his military like outfit. But with his tall form he pulled it off.

When he heard the reason why I was here in his office, he laughed. His eyes lighted up and his laughter echoed around me. Pretty soon I was joining him, as he told me stories of Jinno when they used to be in school together and other hilarious gossips that he collected over the years.

From then on I made a point to visit Principal Yukihara frequently and I started to look up to him as a fatherly figure. When I was little, living with my grandpa, I would imagine what my real father might be like if I had one. But my imagination couldn't conjure up the warmth and the feeling I have when I'm with the principal. There was another person before him, aside from my grandpa, that made me feel that way, but I try not to dwell too much on that.

"So this is Natsume's new Aeterna. She doesn't look very capable," a hoarse yet strong voice directed my attention to the aging elder.

"Now father," the long haired man spoke. "you don't know that. I think she looks very capable." He smiled at me and I noticed that his eyes matched the ones I saw outside.

The old man huffed. "Then obviously you do not have very good eyes," he criticized. "Natsume doesn't need some lazy, ordinary girl who only does things half heartedly or for attention from a Hyuuga. He needs someone who is precise, loy-"

"Enough," growled Natsume. His voice was the lowest in the room and he sounded irritated. The old man looked offended and opened his mouth, but Principal Yukihara smoothly intervened.

"Gentleman, you're straying from the purpose of your visit," he said pleasantly. "I believe there was something you wanted to inform Mikan, Mr. Hyuuga?"

The elder cleared his throat. "Ah, yes," he began. "As you know, Natsume is turning sixteen next year-"

"Really? I didn't know that," I interrupted. I was provoked by the insults that he gave me after one glance, and his way of treating everyone as inferior to him was getting old.

He stared at me, mouth agape, like it was the first time someone that was not Natsume did that. Even the other man, who I now guessed to be Natsume's father, as looking at me as if I was a brave hero, while his son just gave me an amused look.

"Keep going Nobuki," the principal implored, winking at me.

Nobuki shook his head and continued. "As I was saying, Natsume will have his sixteenth birthday next year, and as he is heir to Hyuuga Corps. He will have to prepare to take over." He paused and looked to see if I was following, which I wasn't. "That means that he will have to start attending meeting that concern the company and visit head quarters more often for training."

I still didn't get it. "What does that have to do with me?" I asked.

"As his Aeterna, it is your duty to arrange his schedule, make sure he stays on top of his school work and work concerning the company, and accompany him whenever he goes outside of the academy." His face told me that he didn't believe that I could do any of those things.

"This is a very important time and I need to make sure that you can protect and serve him to the fullest," he finished.

Principal Yukihara saw that I was about to protest and remarked, "Those are the kinds of jobs that Aeternos are expected to do." I realized then, as I looked at every face in the room, that there was no way out of this. When Natsume named me as his, my life was sealed. Sure, I could quit and go back to being a one star, but I worked so hard to get to the top; to the me that I know today. I wasn't ready to go all the way back down. This wasn't just about my stars.

Quitting would mean that I lost. Lost to everything that I have been fighting against since I was born. And I hated losing.

Taking a deep breath, I answered clearly, "Of course." Oblivious to the internal struggle I just had, Nobuki nodded his head.

"I'm going back to the headquarters, I've been away long enough, Takashi, give her the stuff she needs." Without waiting for a reply, Nobuki Hyuuga walked out the door.

Takashi jumped out of his seat. He turned towards his son. "Natsume, can you go and wait outside? I want to talk to your Aeterna in private." Natsume shrugged and got out of seat. When the door closed behind him the brunette turned to me.

"I'm Natsume's father, Takashi Hyuuga. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand I shook it.

"Mikan Sakura," I replied.

"I apologize for my father-in-law's behavior earlier and his harsh judgment."

I glanced at the door. "Is he always like that?" I asked.

Takashi laughed weakly. "Lately yes. When Kaoru was alive he was nicer and gentler." Noticing my confused expression he clarified, "Kaoru was Natsume's mother; we kept her last name for the sake of the company. She died when he was five."

"Oh, I didn't know that," I said for the second time. Actually, I didn't know anything about him, I realized. Now that I was stuck in this job, I guess I would have to fix that problem starting now.

The father looked sad. "Yes, he doesn't like to talk about her; both Natsume and Grandfather. Which makes it hard for Aoi; she always wants to know more about her mother."

"His sister?"

"Yes. Kaoru died a year after she gave birth to Aoi, so she doesn't remember anything about her." He looked far off. "She resembles me the most, but her hair is the same as her mother's.

"Kaoru was the one who was supposed to inherit the Hyuuga Empire. She was the only child and she loved the company and was very capable of running it. But after her death, we didn't have a heir. Grandfather and I both knew that I wouldn't be able to take over, so the responsibility was handed to Natsume and Nobuki was forced to remain as head until my son was ready."

I wasn't sure why Takashi was telling me all of this, but I guess after all he has been through, telling a stranger was therapeutic.

Takashi smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I was blabbing. You should have stopped me Kazu."

"I wanted to hear the story as well," the principal replied childishly.

Natsume's dad laughed. "Anyway, what I wanted to say was this; I know that my son seems cold and uncaring, but if you get to know him, you will figure out that most of the time it's just a mask that he puts on to hide himself.

"He's a good kid, that been through so much, and I think he just needs somebody that will understand him. Most of the Aeternas before you quit in the first month. You look different. No, you are different. I felt that since the moment you took a step in this room. I think you might actually be able to break down the walls that he has built around himself." He looked at me with pleading eyes. "I don't know what it is about you, but I believe you can do it."

My head was swimming with all the things that Takashi told me. He gave me a gentle pat on the head. "Sorry this must be a lot that I just pushed on you, but I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important." I nodded, unable to form anything to say. We said goodbye to Principal Yukihara, who told me good luck, and went out the door.

Natsume was sitting in one of the chairs with the girl I met earlier. They were talking together, or more accurately, she was talking and Natsume was staring off, when we walked up to them.

"Daddy!" The girl cried and jumped on Takashi.

"Come on now Aoi," he groaned. "You're thirteen now." She giggled, while Natsume just looked disgusted.

"Let's go Polka," he ordered.

Aoi noticed us leaving. "Wait!" she called out. She got off her father and beamed at me. "I didn't get to introduced myself properly," she chirped. "I'm Aoi Hyuuga, Natsume's sister."

Her hyper activeness and lively attitude was contagious, and I found myself smiling widely. "I'm Mikan Sakura. Nice to meet you," I replied.

Suddenly I felt someone behind me, and I saw Aoi's smile dim when she saw who it was. I whirled around and came face to face with a vampire... sort of. But the man in front of me was pale, like he's never seen the sun, and his lips were almost purple. His eyes were a black abyss, matching his hair. It didn't stop there though. Even his clothes were black and he had piercings on his ears and jewelry dangled from his neck and wrists.

I felt chills run down my spine as our eyes met and a sharp pain exploded in my head. I had a nagging suspicion that I met this person before, but I couldn't place where. But I knew I didn't like him.

"Oh Rei." I jumped back, I hadn't realized that the Dracula impersonator's hand was raised and extended towards my face, as if he was going to touch it. I felt a new set of shivers rack my body. Natsume, who was standing next to me, gave the man a glare and pulled me slightly behind him.

Serio opened his mouth and a chilling voice came out. "I'm here to pick you up, Mr. Hyuuga."

"Sorry, I'll be right there." He hurried over to us. "Mikan," Takashi said. "This is Nobuki's secretary. You'll be talking and meeting him a lot for now on."

"Rei Serio." He held out a pale hand. Although I didn't want to, I made myself give him my name and grabbed his hand. It was ice cold. "I look forward to working with you." He gave me a smile that made him resemble a wolf hunting his dinner.

Aoi left the building with her father and Rei. As soon as they were out of eyesight, Natsume took off in the other direction and I ran to catch up to him. I had a weird urge to turn around and I did. There was a vase of live flowers decorating the hallway, and even though they were bright and blooming a second ago, all of them were dead.

* * *

><p><strong>Come back soon!~ :D<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**I'm going to be leaving for a vacation soon, so I thought I should update before I leave! I got so many positive responses last time and thanks to papaya-san for reviewing on almost EVERY one of my chapters! **

**I worked to make this one long, so tell me what you think!**

* * *

><p>I was in a cage. It was so small that my head touched the top and there was no room for me to move. I tugged at the bars ferociously, panic and claustrophobia setting in, but I could find no way out.<p>

I heard a scuffing noise in the distance and my head snapped up, seeking for the source. For the first time I noticed my surroundings were pitched black, nothing was visible farther from the bars.

The noise repeated again and as if someone turned on the lights, I could suddenly see the area around me. I gasped as I saw that I was in a room with computer screens covering the walls and various equipments everywhere. There was even some treadmills that was used my kids who didn't look older than ten with some adults surrounding them, making notes on their clipboards.

The most abundant items were the cages; they were lined up in a row against the wall, all with an occupant. The room was also filled with people. They were all adults with white coats on, checking on whoever was in the cages and running the technology.

One of the men with these coats walked over to my cage and swung it open easily. He grabbed my arm in a steely grip and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get away. He placed his free hand in his pocket and took out a syringe filled with suspicious yellow liquid.

As the cold metal pricked my skin, I screamed.

XXX

When I woke up, it was two in the morning. I left the window open so the room was a little cold, but I was covered in a thin layer of sweat and I was panting like I just finished a marathon. I don't remember the last time I had that nightmare. It was probably when I was younger and living with Hotaru and her family. Back then I was afraid of the dark and of falling asleep because that dream was the only thing I would see behind my closed eyes.

Although she thought it was a pain, Hotaru would sleep next to me; waking me up and assuring me that it wasn't real whenever I started screaming in my sleep. I never told her what I saw and she never asked. It was as if she knew that if I said what I saw out loud it would become real for me. Because it did feel real, even though I never remember anything like that happening to me. Much like how I don't remember anything about my past.

I shook my head. Meeting the Hyuugas and that pale secretary was probably the cause for the reoccurrence of my nightmare. All the stress of my new job was probably getting to me.

After several attempts to fall back asleep and failing to do so, I climbed out of bed. I took a shower to rinse off the sweat from my body and redressed myself in a tank top and shorts. I grabbed myself a glass of water and took a seat by my balcony window. Staring out the window, I let my mind go blank and before I noticed five hours went by.

The sky was already shining with the sun high in the sky. I checked my clock and saw that it was already seven, meaning I only had fifteen minutes to get to class. I placed my untouched glass of water in the sink, and changing like a storm; I grabbed my backpack and flew out the door.

I made to class before the bell rang; although I didn't even need to since the teacher was Mr. Narumi, one of the nicest teachers on campus.

I slid in my seat next to Natsume, who was sleeping with a book covering his face, just as the teacher waltz in singing, "Good morning my lovely student!" Without waiting for a reply he continued, "Today we're going to have a field trip! Isn't it exciting?"

If we were at any other school, a field trip would be something to look forward to, but as our school is one for wizards, students were restricted from leaving the enclosure to minimize the risk of exposing our unpredictable magic. To sum it up, Mr. Narumi did not receive any energetic cheers from his students.

That didn't hamper his mood in anyway.

"Pack up all of your stuff. We're going to the Northern Woods!" He pranced out of the room, leaving the kids to rush and catch up with him.

I grabbed Natsume's bag, as I saw the other Aeternos did, and nudged his face with my finger. "Wake up Master, we're leaving." He groaned and let the book slide off his face.

His startling red eyes pierced mine as he asked, "Did you just call me Master?" I nodded, too tired from the lack of sleep to talk. "Well don't. Just call me Natsume."

"Alright," I replied. I decided to try to take this Aeterna business seriously, especially since Grandfather Hyuuga didn't think I could do it. I wanted something to rub in his face. Takashi's pleas might have something to do with it too.

Natsume and Ruka and traced the route that the teacher took, I followed closely behind him. I saw Luna narrow her eyes as I passed her desk and heard her whispering to Sumire when I walked out the door. I would have to take care of them later.

"What did you do, stay up all night? You're eyes are covered in bags."

I was surprised that he noticed, or cared enough to ask, and I racked my head for a good reply but came up with: "Couldn't fall asleep." It wasn't technically a lie.

"Well you could have covered it up with make up or something. You look horrible." I couldn't believe that I actually thought that he cared. I don't know what Takashi thought Natsume was hiding behind his cold facade, but it wasn't kindness.

Ruka looked at me with a sheepish smile and sympathy in his eyes as if to say, forgive him. I opened my mouth to send a witty remark at him but Natsume grabbed my arm and teleported us to the Northern Woods as soon as we cleared the building.

The woods took up almost one third of the Academy lands and it was filled with the unknown. There were stories of man eating monsters and of ghost in the shape of deceased wizards. The woods were also where failed experiments get throw away in. It was perfectly safe to stay by the edge of forest, like where my friends and I eat, but going in was similar to suicide.

"Ok children! We're going exploring today!" My eyes almost fell out as Mr. Narumi emerged wearing a pink and purple explorers outfit. Mr. Narumi might be a nice teacher, but he was eccentric and a bit feminine, which often rubbed the students the wrong way.

"What is that man wearing?" I heard Natsume mutter next to me. I had no explanation.

"Get in groups and we'll go off in different direction into the forest. We'll meet back here before the end of class to tell each other what we discovered," the teacher exclaimed.

Immediately someone called our names. "Natsume, Mikan, Ruka!" Over here!" It was Koko and the rest of the gang. As Natsume strolled over to the guys, I looked through the crowd for a familiar shade of violet. Once I found it, I grabbed Hotaru's hand and dragged her over to the group.

"Cool Imai is coming with us too?" Mochu grinned. "Now if we meet anything weird in the woods, she can blast them away with her Baka Gun."

"Look I found something already," she remarked and aimed her gun, which came out of thin air, at him. Mochu's face paled but Koko was laughing so hard he was bent over. I saw Ruka smiling at his friends while Natsume gave his trademark roll of the eyes.

Yuu was helping Koko get up when I asked, "Are we ready to go in?" I got affirmatives all around, except from the stoic Natsume and Hotaru. "Alright, let's go."

The Northern Woods was so dense that it blocked the sun, making it seem like night inside. I jumped as a ball of fire was produced on Natsume's hand. I touched my ear cuff and felt the engraved fire symbol, realizing that it referred to his Alice.

"Put that flame away, unless you want to start a forest fire," Hotaru's voice sliced through the quiet.

"Well," Natsume remarked. "Do you have another way to see in this dark?" The inventor simply sighed and reached in her backpack. She pulled out something that looked like a little dolphin. She pushed a button that was on its back and it floated into the air next to her head. The mouth opened slowly and suddenly light poured out, its mouth and eyes bathing the tress in a flood of illumination.

Hotaru looked at Natsume pointedly and the pyro put of his flame. We walked along for a few minuets talking about pointless things. The line of trees was getting thicker and if I wasn't a wizard, I wouldn't have been worried about getting lost. I would not want to spend a night in here.

But for all the rumors and warning we heard about this place, nothing happened. It was actually starting to get boring, until Ruka spoke. "Do you smell something sweet?" He stopped and the rabbit in his arms sniffed the air.

"Master watch out!" Yuu had saved Koko from running into a glomp of pink goo that was hanging from a branch.

"What is that?" Mochu asked. The pink slime was everywhere; all of the trees, shrubs, and rocks were covered in it. Hotaru used a small knife to take a small sample and ran it through some portable scanner.

She furrowed her eyebrows when the report came back. "Its bubble gum," she announced.

"Bubble gum? Who chews this much bubble gum?" asked Koko.

"Let's just keep going," Natsume commanded. "Polka Dots cut down a path for up."

I looked at him and then pointed at myself. "Me?"

"It's and order." He smirked and pushed me in front.

"I'll help you too Mikan," Yuu spoke up.

I smiled at him. "It's all right. I got this." I faced the sea of pink and took a deep breath. I felt the air rippling around me and used my hands to focus it in front of me. I push it forward and the wind cuts the layers of gun, making a path that we could walk through.

"Good job Mikan!" Koko patted me on the shoulder and took the lead, with Yuu right behind him. Natsume passed me without a word and I walked along side Ruka.

"How do you think all this got here?" I asked him.

"No clue," he replied. "Whatever it is, I hope we won't meet it." I was thinking maybe this was the work of an experiment gone wrong when I started hearing clicking noises resound around us. Suddenly, there was a huge crash behind us. I whirled around and saw that there was a gaping hole that wasn't there a second ago.

"The idiot fell in," Hotaru calmly stated. We rushed over to the scene and saw Mochu at the bottom of a ten foot drop, unmoving.

Yuu looked down worriedly. "Is he alright?" His fear was short lived, however, when Mochu groaned and slowly sat up.

"It's a good thing his head is so hard." I gave Hotaru a nudge and told her to be nice.

"What happened?" Mochu called out.

"Looks like you need to lose some weight mate." Koko crackled. "You're the only one who broke this trap." There was no reply from below. The clicking noise started up again and I got a prickling sensation on the back of my neck, like someone was watching me. I looked behind me and felt goose bumps crawl over me.

"Guys," I called. Ruka looked at where I was pointing and his eyes widened. From the think spindles of gum came out hundreds of huge purple webworms. The clicking noises wasn't really clicking, it was the sound of their pointy bristles rubbing against their surroundings. I couldn't tell if they had faces or not, but I could feel the anger roiling off the insects.

I took a step back and immediately regretted it. My foot fell through empty air and I grabbed Ruka's arm as I fell down the hole. Ruka in turn knocked Natsume to the side, making him hit Yuu, who let go of Mochu that was trying to climb back up.

I hit the bottom first and as Ruka and Mochu landed next to me, I felt the ground sinking. I barely had time to cast a pillow cushion spell before the ground gave way under us, and we landed fifty feet lower than before. By the time we pulled ourselves from the mountain of fluffy padding, the rest of our group landed lightly on the ground, using a levitation spell.

"You guys ok?" Koko asked, coming down in front of us.

Ruka dusted himself off and picked up his rabbit. "Yeah, we're fine. Thanks to Mikan's fast casting." There was noise overhead and for a second I had a vision of us drowning in a pit full of webworms, but as I watched the worms spun webs of gum, covering the opening.

Mochu shook his head. "I guess that means they don't want us back up there." He sighed. "Cant you talk to them with your Alice Ruka?"

"His Alice is animal pheromone; I don't think insects count," Natsume bluntly pointed out.

Meanwhile, Hotaru was using her flashlight and searching the area that we landed in. "Let's keep going," she said and walked off towards a tunnel that was carved to the rock face. Without complaints we followed her. Not that we had any choice. There was nothing in this place; it was either the tunnel or the web covered hole.

Even with the light, it was impossible to see the end. We continued on in silence, each wondering what the finish will hold. We realized soon that Hotaru's dolphin flashlight was unnecessary because the walls themselves were emitting a glow of green light, more than enough to see by.

"Where do you think this is?" I asked out loud.

Yuu adjusted his glasses and studied the facade. "I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure we're still under the Northern Forest." We continued on. The tunnel seemed endless but soon we saw, in the distance, that the light cut off, and a dark void lay beyond.

Our footsteps that made scraping sounds against the rock floor turned in to metallic clicks that echoed in the empty space. With a whirl Hotaru's invention illuminated the whole room.

It looked like a huge lab. Giant plasma screens covered the walls and there were control panels everywhere. But, even with all the equipment the place was felt empty; like no one has been in here since forever.

I immediately disliked this place. It smelled weird and it gave me a sick feeling. It reminded me of my nightmare that I had today, which only made the whatever-this-is look scarier.

Without questioning it, I let my feet lead me farther into the room. Hotaru was examining all the technology and the boys were simply exploring, but I went straight to the back corner and skimmed my fingers along the wall. I felt a small bump in the smooth concrete and pressed it, with a whoosh a part of the wall slid to the side.

My stomach clenched as a hallway was reveled. Light turned on in turn down the passage. Someone patted my back. It was Mochu. "Nice find Mikan," he congratulated me and raced down the corridor with Koko and Yuu. The inventor gave me a shove and I almost stumbled to the ground. Getting the hint I walked forward. At the end of the path I saw the three boys frozen in their tracks.

"What are you guys doing?" I heard Ruka ask. But he stopped too when he came in sight of the room.

Koko gulped loudly and whispered, "What is this place?"

In front of them was an infinite row of cages and cells. There was some exercising equipment scattered around the room and things that looked like it belong in an operating room.

I walked past the awe strucked boys and went to one of the cages that were against the wall. I felt like vomiting when I saw that it was the exact same one from my dream. I turned around and viewed the room. Almost everything was the same.

This couldn't be possible.

* * *

><p><strong>Have a nice spring break guys! (Or <em>had <em>a nice one if yours already ended).**


	9. Chapter 9

**This chapter is a bit short! Sorry~**

* * *

><p>I think I threw up at least two days worth of food. I didn't want Hotaru hovering over me as I regurgitated in my bathroom, so I somehow convinced her I was alright. Which I wasn't. I think she knew that too, like how she immediately knew something was wrong when I made the discovery underground, but like in our childhood, she knew it was one of those 'don't ask' things.<p>

After the boys explored the lab a bit more, Yuu found another secret door that led us above ground, right outside the forest. As the last of us crawled out, we heard a shrill whistle ring through the air; the signal from Mr. Narumi.

When we all gathered, it was obvious that most people had found nothing while others had run ins with some of the creatures in the woods from how tousled they looked. One group said that they were beaten by a moving teddy bear. Out of all the rest, our story was the most interesting. Everyone listened to Koko and Mochu's over-exaggerated recount of our tale, with many hand gestures and sound effects, with rapt attention.

I tried to smile and laugh along with the crowd, but with my emotions in a whirlwind, it was hard to do. It didn't help that Natsume was staring strangely at me the entire time.

Grabbing a towel from a rack, I rinsed out my mouth and wet the cloth so I could wipe my sweat that accumulated on my forehead. The cool moisture helped make me feel better, so I risked leaving the bathroom and changed into pajamas.

I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillows.

I was up early in the morning, so I made it to class in plenty of time and full of energy, last night's episode forgotten temporarily. It was a good thing I was early because it was PE today and I had to rush to the gym and change my clothes.

I loved PE. I loved working hard and feeling my muscles warm up. I loved the sweat running down my face as I delivered punches to the boxing bag. Suffice to say, this was my favorite class.

Like everything else, our PE course was different. We focused more on fighting and learning how to defend ourselves. Because no matter how much we hide, there are still people out there that know about us, and try to catch us to use our powers for their own selfish deeds.

When I was a three star, we learned how to protect ourselves. In Special Star, we practiced how to protect not just us, but our masters as well.

Which is really hard.

I had some practice fights with Nendo's Aeterno. He was weak and if it was just me and him, I would have won in three seconds. But as soon as I block his first attack, he would run to Natsume, not giving me enough time to catch him.

We did this three times. Natsume "died" three times.

"How can you be an Aeterna, if you can't even protect him from Nendo?" a snotty voice remarked. I didn't see who said it, but from the way Luna was glaring at me, I could guess.

The coach gave me some tips and I promised to practice. The bell rang and we filed in to the locker rooms. I was slammed against the shower stall as soon as I walked in.

"Ouch!" I yelled. "You really need to stop coming out of nowhere and pulling me around." I scowled at the green haired fiend.

"We warned you to step away," she growled.

"Yeah, and I decided to ignore it," I told her. "Where's your controlling friend that you follow around?"

Sumire waved away that question as if it was a fly. "Why are you still here?"

"Well you're kind of holding me here."

She looked down and realized that her hand was still on her shoulder. Removing it she said, "No not here. I mean why are you still with Natsume?"

I shrugged. "Because I feel like it."

"Please," she scoffed. "There must be a better reason than that."

"Since when did we become best friends? I told have to tell you anything."

She narrowed her eyes slightly. "You're not falling for him are you?"

I almost choked on my spit and died. "Gross! No!" I said loudly. "That's not possible." I shuddered just thinking of that possibility.

Sumire looked convinced. "Well that's good. If you did like him, Luna will be harsher towards you." She looked outside the stall; almost everyone was long gone, leaving us the only ones in here. "You have to be careful around her."

"What?" I asked, not comprehending.

"She's sneaky and manipulative. She'll get you when your least expecting it," she whispered.

"Wait, why are you telling me this?" I couldn't believe that she was telling on Luna.

She sighed like she was explaining something simple to an ignorant six year old. "We might agree on a lot of things and I might the closest one to her, but even I'm scared of her." She changed her tone to sound furtive. "There's something different about Luna. I've noticed it before, every so often, but now, she's really strange, ever since you came here."

"What do you mean?" A normal fan crazy girl was one thing, but a psychotic fan crazy girl might be more than I can handle.

"I don't know, and I don't plan to find out. So watch yourself around Luna." Sumire brushed past me and left, leaving me to collect my thoughts.

I decided that I wouldn't understand anything while I was still covered in sweat and dirty clothes, so I walked to my locker and undressed. Since no one was here, I made my way back to the stalls and turned on the hot water.

As the water washed over me, I thought about everything that Sumire told me and came to the conclusion that being an Aeterna, especially Natsume's, just brought a lot of drama and trouble. I also had other problems to think about; like my dreams and past. I was convinced now that the dreams actually had something to do with my past, which was not a happy thought.

I always wondered why I don't remember anything before the age of six. The first thing I remember is waking up in an old room. My back hurt because I was laying on a futon, and I knew I never slept in one before, I always had a bed. I heard a door sliding open and looked to my right and saw an old man standing in my room. He introduced himself as her grandfather and how my life started.

Well not I knew where I was before I came there. I was in a lab. Why I was there or what was the purpose was still a mystery to me. But I have a feeling that with time I'll find the answer. The truth will probably be a whole lot worse than the problem with Luna.

Natsume was waiting for me when I left the changing room. Considering I was in there for almost forty minutes, I was surprised that he was still there. He stood from the bleachers where he was lying down and walked over to me.

"Any longer and I would of went in there," he said as he reached me.

I flashed back on the comment the Sumire had made in the showers. "That wouldn't send people the wrong message."

He gave me a weird stare that made it look like he heard what I just thought. "I saw Seaweed Hair go in," he said.

"Who?"

"Shouda."

"Oh." That was Sumire's last name, aka Seaweed Hair.

"Did she say anything to you?" His eyes bore into mine and I felt myself being hypnotized by his ruby orbs.

"No," I stuttered. "Nothing at all." He broke the spell by looking away and pushed me towards the doors.

"Whatever," he said. "Class is already half over. I expect notes for the things I missed." This guy really is impossible.

**XXX**

I was woken up this morning by loud banging on the door. I ignored it and snuggled deeper under my covers, but the knocking persisted. I groggily lifted my head of the pillow and glanced at the clock. It was still four AM.

Another round of someone hitting the door got me to my feet. I dragged it to the door and looked through the peep hole. "Oh fudge," I said as I saw who was at my door. It was Jinno, number one or two, I didn't know, and he looked mad, not that he wasn't always, just more than usual. I opened the door slowly, wondering what I could have possibly done to receive Jinno's wrath this early in the morning, and braced myself.

"You're late." He threw something at me and I caught it before it hit my face.

"Huh?" I said, still a little drowsy.

Jinno checked his watch and tapped it. "You have ten minutes to get ready, and then head to the big field." He turned to leave.

"Wait!" I called. "Get ready for what?"

"The Alice festival."

I looked down at my hands and saw that he gave me trainers. "Alice Festival?" I asked.

He looked at me like I sprouted another head. "Must I explain everything to you?" He sighed and looked like he wanted to zap me with his Alice.

"It would help."

"Alice Festival is a time for Aeternos to show off their skills and their capabilities. You have a match against each other and see who wins. The winner gets the honor of being the Best Protector of the Year," he explained. "Now get ready."

Although I was forced in to this, I didn't mind. I actually liked fighting, the rush and the surge of strength you felt when you win. I liked showing what I can do without being held back. It was also the way I grew up; I had to survive in the streets by being on the top and beating every opponent that comes across you.

The tension was high and each master and Aeterno was keeping to themselves, checking out the competition from the corner of their eyes. Each pair had on matching tracksuits (even thought the masters weren't fighting) with their clan emblem and school name embroidered on jackets and shirts.

I found Natsume standing under a banner with the words "Bracket Three" written in big bold letters floating fifteen feet in the air. The tournament was held in a big grass field (expanded magically) and there were huge rectangles drawn in to the ground, indicating the fighting area.

I ran through the fresh dew to stand next to my master. "Who am I fighting against first?" I asked while I stretched out my limbs.

Natsume looked almost sour as he answered cryptically, "You don't want to know."

I scoffed. "Sure I do," I replied.

"Seaweed Hair." Oh, maybe I didn't want to know.

I groaned, so we would be going against Miss-self-proclaimed-leader-of-the-Natsume-fan club. I would've been happy had it meant that I get to pumble her to the ground, but no, I had to go against her Aeterno. The big, muscular, Russian Andrei, who I still have doubts of being sixteen, much less a student.

As if she heard out conversation, Sumire came strutting towards us with her partner shadowing her. "Natsume!" she squealed. "I knew that God would pair us up together!" I wanted to remind her that we were going to be opponents, but I kept my mouth shut and so did Natsume.

No receiving a response from the raven haired lass, other than a simple stare, she turned towards me and sneered. "Just because you're Natsume's Aeterna, don't expect that I'll go easy on you." There was nothing of the Sumire I saw in the locker room. Instead, her glare was magnified by the dark mascara around her eyes. Through with trying to scare me, she gave Natsume a flirtatious smile and stalked off to the other side of the fighting area.

I rolled my eyes and muttered, "Like I need you to go easy on me." Natsume gave me a smirk.

"Let's kick some butt." I'll follow that order without complaint.

A loud whistle echoed around the field and everyone got quiet. The voice belonging to the high school principal made an announcement.

"Welcome to the annual Alice Skill Competition," the disembodied voice greeted. "Will all competitors proceed to their area." After the shuffling of moving bodies, the principal continued to say how he wanted honest fights and how he was looking forward to the accomplishments we will make during this event.

"You may start your battle when you are ready. If you lose come to the checkout counter in the southeast corner of the field and if you win, go to the northeast corner to receive your next challenge."

A shrill bell rang, signaling the start of the Alice Skill Competition.

* * *

><p><strong>The next chapter will be longer. I promise! Thanks for reading :D<strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**Here is the next chapter! This is my first fight scene so let me know what you guys think. It needs improvement and I would like your help to make it better, so if you guys can give me some pointers, I would appreciate it! **

**I had some readers comment on how my story resembles another work called "Honey X Honey Drops." I had my friend who read the series tell me about it and I saw that you guys were right, but the similarities were unintentional! I only chose the earring because Natsume already has some and nothing else is the same. Thanks to the people who let me know, so I could make things clear!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Andrei stared me down from the other side of the field, trying to intimidate me, but I wasn't going to back down. We were immersed in our staring contest for so long that it made Sumire tap her foot impatiently.<p>

"Are we going to start anytime soon?" she called out. As if that was his que, the ground beneath my feet started to crumble. I leapt forward, uttering a quick spell to make my body lighter, and landed ten feet away. I turned around and saw a gaping hole where I was a second ago. Andrei was built like a fighter, but he was also a powerful spell caster, I realized.

I turned back and just barley managed to avoid a punch in the face as Andrei teleported in front of me. I jumped back a few feet, close to the edge of the hole. I was already getting overwhelmed. Taking a deep breath to center myself, I faced the charging silver Russian and at the last second leaped up, coming back down on his back, effectively knocking him in to the hole.

A large thud was heard as my feet touched the ground. I didn't pause to take a look; instead I ran as fast and far as I can, right before an explosion shook the ground, sending me to my knees. I stood up quickly and whirled around, catching the fist that was flying towards me, and using momentum, brought Andrei's heavy body to the ground.

I backed away to a safe distance, watching carefully as he got up. There were some scratches in his face and a part of his jacket was torn, but no big damage was evident. I could see the anger burning in his eyes and I braced myself for another blast, like the one he just created. Instead he charged at me again.

I got ready to get out of the way, but I noticed too late that my feet wouldn't move; it was intertwined in magically grown grass. The air was knocked out of my lungs as Andrei made contact with my body; I heard a sickening snap as he pushed me to the ground. White searing pain bloomed in my ribs as he lifted himself off of me.

"I think were done here," he called out to his master while turning his back to me. That was his mistake.

Ignoring the pain, I got up quickly, grabbed the back of his jacket, and threw his to the ground. "We are not done," I whispered and launched myself at him. I encased my fist with hard ice and heard a satisfactory crunch as I hit blow on his nose. I look of surprise crossed his face, but pain soon took over.

He got up and threw me, but I landed nimbly. Fueled with pain and adrenaline, I got close to him and dropped my weight to the ground with my leg stuck out performing a sweep kick, making him collide with the ground again. This time, in place of getting up, Andrei disappeared with a faint pop. I stood strait, preparing myself, and a type of natural instincts washed over me. I lifted my foot back, twisting my body around, and let my heel clip Andrei's jaw as he appeared behind me.

The ease of which I preformed my back kick made me feel like I did this before, but I couldn't dwell on it because Andrei countered with a kick of his own, that caught me on the side with the broken rib, making me cry out.

I teleported myself a good distance away, trying to come up with a plan and at the same time watch out for any of his. I checked out my opponent and although it doesn't look like much damage has been done, he looked like he was ready to pass out from the massive blood loss from his nose. I knew I needed at least one more decent punch, but I had no way of sneaking up on him.

"Go Mikan!" I heard a cheer from my right. I chanced a quick peek and saw my friends, Anna, Nonoko, and Hotaru, in the crowd surrounding our square. It just made me notice how big the crowd got; even the Jinno twins were watching the match. Seeing the Jinnos sparked an idea, I smirked and started chanting the spell.

"Here piggy, piggy," I called softly, "come and play." I saw Andrei jump as fifteen of my summoned pigs surrounded him, running around him playfully. I took that break in his concentration to teleport myself in front of him. Enclosing my hand in ice once again, I drove my fist in his gut, making him gasp and stumble back.

To finish off, I summoned water, and making a circular motion with my fingers, trapped Andrei in a waterspout. The crowd laughed as they saw the big man spinning in circles, trapped in the current of the water, and I could hear Sumire screeching in the distance.

After I slowly sent the pigs back from wherever they came from, I called off the water and Andrei fell in front of me, soaked and unconscious.

A cheer went up from the surrounding people as I feel to my knees. The healers came with a stretcher for me and Andrei. I winced as they hoisted me up and put me on one, but I quickly put on a smile when my friends surrounded me.

"Are you ok Mikan?" Nonoko and Anna asked me at the same time.

"I'm fine," I laughed, "its nothing serious." The girls looked like they wanted to contradict me, but Natsume walked over and saved me from the fussing from the girls.

"Nice fight." He gave me a quick smile that sent a weird sensation through my body and in my chest. "Didn't think you had that in you." He patted my head, showing a rare form of affection.

"Even the Jinnos are impressed." Hotaru pointed a finger and I saw the twins smiling in my direction.

I sighed. "Guess I better thank them later," I said, "They did help me win the fight." Everyone laughed as they remembered the running pigs, even Natsume gave a little chuckle.

"I'll be watching Koko and Yuu's fight," Natsume said as the doctors started to carry me away. "Don't worry; you don't have to fight anymore today."

"We'll take good care of Mikan!" Anna called after Natsume's retreating figure.

XXX

"Why are you always so reckless?" were the first words out of the healers mouth as I arrived at the on-campus hospital. I got ready to protest, but he quickly popped an instant pain reliever sheet in my mouth, making me close my lips as the sheet melted, taking away the headache and the aches that I was beginning to develop.

I stared at the light spring green walls of his room, enjoying the grape flavor that the medicine left behind, as he examined my injuries. I let out a gasp of pain when he touched my abdominal and he let out a sigh and stood up.

"How bad is it?" I asked.

He clicked his tongue and grabbed a clipboard hanging from his door. "You have a collection of scratches and bruises, a bump on your head, and a broken rib," he told me and used a flashlight to check my eyes. "It doesn't look like you have a concussion, which is good for me because then I'll have less work to do."

I rolled my eyes. "Sometimes you are just like Hotaru," I said.

He sighed and gave me a tired smile. "Shouldn't it be the other way around? I am the older brother; she should be more like me." I waved his comment away.

"You look really tired and stressed today," I observed, "more than usual."

"That's because the amount of kids coming in here for injuries is more than usual." I recalled the amount of patients that I passed by on the way to this room. It was a lot.

"I'm not going to fix everything," he said, "just the rib bone and I'll lower the swelling on the head. Other than that it going to have to heal naturally."

I nodded my head and closed my eyes as he placed his hands over the spot over the broken bone. I felt a coldness and then warmth flourished under the skin as Subaru used his Alice to make the bone whole again.

Hotaru's brother had a two Alices, which was rare. He had the ability to heal any wounds dealt on the body, but he also had the power to give pain to a person. Those two combined made him respected yet feared in the magical community.

Just when he finished healing my head, the door opened and a frazzled looking nurse stuck her head in and announced that Subaru was needed in the Emergency Room.

"Looks like break time's over," he said. He got up slowly as if he gained fifty years.

"Thanks Dr. Imai!" I chirped and gave him a mock salute. "I'll come back when I get hurt again." He just shook his head and left the room.

I met Anna and Nonoko at the waiting room. "Feeling better?" Anna asked me.

"Yea got the best doctor to fix me up." I grinned.

"You mean Hotaru's brother? Lucky!" Nonoko squealed. Apparently, doctors with glasses were in.

"Where's Hotaru?" I asked.

"Oh she went back to the festival to take some pictures," Anna replied. With nowhere else to go, I decided to head back as well. The festival was skill in full swing, fight were everywhere and the cheering of the crowd got louder as the intensity of the fights increased.

I stopped at Yuu and Koko's arena and saw that despite his scrawny body, Yuu was a tough opponent. His Alice is illusions, which made it hard for the other team to land a hit on him, if all they could see was whatever Yuu presented to them.

I was laughing along with the spectators at the Aeterno's battle against a fabricated yeti, when Yuu suddenly ended the illusion. Before, the other man could realize what was going on, Yuu muttered some words, and the man fell, paralyzed, with his hands still in yeti combat mode.

I clapped and cheered, running up to Koko to congratulate them, but Natsume beat me to it. I ran into his back and Ruka caught both of us as we tipped forward. "Good job guys!" I exclaimed as soon as I was back on my feet.

"Looks like someone feels better," muttered Natsume. I stuck my tongue out at him. He rolled his eyes at my childishness.

"Congrats on your win as well," Yuu commented. I gave him a high five as a response.

A teacher came up and began leading Koko and Yuu to the next battle area. "Thanks for the support guys," Koko called back as he was whisked away in the crowd. That left me, Natsume, and Ruka alone.

"I'm going to watch them again," Natsume announced. "You do whatever you want to do," he told me. I smiled, glad that I wasn't obligated to follow him around all the time.

"I think I'll go eat," I said, noticing the buffet set up across the field.

Ruka followed my gaze. "Yea, I'll go too," he said. Natsume nodded. "Let's go Mikan." I waved to Natsume, who didn't wave back, and walked behind Ruka.

Soon, we were sitting at one of the benches with our plates full of food. I watched Ruka feed his rabbit carrots from his plate and I wondered how this gentle animal lover became best friends with the rough fire caster. "How did you and Natsume meet?" I asked, curiosity winning over me.

Ruka looked startled at the question and then smiled fondly, like he was remembering a good memory. "I met him during second grade," he said. "Before that I lived in France and attended the Alice Academy there."

"So you are French?" I asked amazed.

Ruka laughed. "Only half; my mother is French, my father is Japanese." He popped a Swedish meatball into his mouth. "Anyway, the first couple week of school was horrible."

"Why?"

"Girls," he replied, shuddering. "They would never leave me alone. They chased me on the playground, made me wear dresses; they would even steal things from me." Suddenly, I felt shame for the female population.

"Natsume found me one day in the forest crying. The girls found a photo of my mom in my backpack and they wouldn't give it back." He looked up and gave me a smile. "I was a mommy's boy back then," he said sheepishly "so not being able to see my mother was hard and that picture was the only thing that helped."

I nodded my head in understanding, even thought I never had a mother to miss. "I would always see Natsume alone and he would always refuse to communicate with others, I thought he was mean and didn't like to play with others, but that day instead of walking away like I thought he would, he sat down next to me. Once he found out what happened, he went straight to the girls and demanded the photo back. He did get it back, but at the expense of girls crying over their burnt hair." That sounded exactly like what Natsume would do. "He said for payment he wanted a new manga, I readily bought it of course, and since then we've been together."

I never thought that there would be a heartwarming story involving Natsume, but there it was. I ate my onigiri slowly thinking about how misjudged Natsume is. "He's a really good person you know," Ruka said staring at me. "He might seem mean and insensitive, but once he lets you, he'll protect you loyally."

"Thanks for sharing with me Ruka," I said.

"No problem," he stuttered, a faint blush decorating his cheeks. "It's just no one ever see's the real Natsume, and I thought you deserved to know, before you make a misconception."

I bit in to the sourness of the pickled plum and chewed on it slowly. "You're a really good friend too," I said. Ruka gave me a flustered smile.

Koko, Yuu, and Natsume came up to us thirty minutes later to report the loss of their battle. Mochu joined us later as we got up to make our way over to the center to watch the crowning of the winners. It was Rui Amane and Hayate Matsudaira, they didn't look like much, but apparently they were powerful enough to have reached first place.

I went back to my room tired and aching. I went over the events of the day in my head as I lay down on my bed after the shower. Today was the first time I got recognition from the great Natsume Hyuuga and I went to sleep feeling like a true Aeterna.

* * *

><p><strong>I worked hard for this one, so I would really like some reviews! <strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**o.O I am soooooo sorry I haven't been updating! I've been busy with school and softball and whatever else that I haven't been working on this story at ALL. Thank you guys for waiting so patiently! Here the new chapter!**

* * *

><p>Along with the warnings and expectations the Hyuugas placed on me, they gave me a leather bound planner, filled with two-way paper. It was for me to find out when Natsume had to show up for a meeting or to visit a client for his heir training. The two-way paper worked like this: Persona, who had the twin planner, could write it down the appointment and it would automatically be transported on to mine.<p>

Our first rendezvous came a few days later. "Hyuuga HQ-11:30" was scratched elegantly in the manila colored paper. I told my master in the morning who simply nodded and went back to reading his comic book.

I was listening intently to Mr. Misaki's lecture about the Austras Koks, a tree consisting of silver leaves, gold branches and copper roots, when Natsume stood up suddenly, making me jump. He gave the teacher a pointed look and Mr. Misaki dismissed his with a wave.

I ran after Natsume and caught up to him in the middle of the hallway. "How are we getting there?" I asked, wondering how I hadn't thought of that before.

"They'll send a car," he had monotonlessly, looking straight ahead.

I observed his tense back, the only part I could see since he was walking quickly. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," he said with so much force that I didn't continue to pester him.

As we made our way out of the building, I almost tripped over myself at the sight in front of me. "That's one long car," I said out loud.

"Hurry up," was his only response.

I rushed forward and reached the door before him. "After you," I announced as I held it open with a flourish and gave him a deep bow. My performance earned rolled eyes from Natsume, but I also saw how his lips twitch into an almost smile.

The car was big enough to hold a whole dorm of people and it felt awkward and quiet with only two of us with the driver partitioned off by darkened glass. I distracted myself by looking out the window. We passed the iron gates and the car drove next to the brick wall until we spilled out to the main road; in to the hustle of normal life.

"It's like a foreign country," I whispered, watching the traffic of cars and people going about their lives. In the quiet of the vehicle, Natsume heard me.

"You've been imprisoned for too long," he told me. He was sitting on the opposite side of me, leaning on the other door, his head in his hand. He wasn't looking outside though; instead he was focused on me.

I blushed as I realized he saw me staring out the window like a little kid. "I get out sometimes," I protested. "I also didn't get caught until later, unlike the others."

"I know." I raised my brow questioningly and he answered it. "I read your profile." He smirked.

"Of course you did." I didn't expect anything less from him.

His playful grin subsided and a quizzical expression replaced it. "Why?" he asked.

"Why what?"

"Why did you enroll so late? Most magicians are found when they are young, how did you stay under the radar for so long? The profile didn't say anything about it."

I gave him a Cheshire grin of my own. "The profile doesn't have to tell you everything." Natsume opened his mouth, but he never got to say anything because right then the car stopped and it was opened, blinding us with the dazzling light from the sun.

The Hyuuga building was huge. I had to crane my head all the way up, just to see the top. I was sure it was breaking height restriction laws. Persona greeted us inside, past the automatic doors guarded by men in black suits and sunglasses, who looked fairly harmless, but you could never underestimate wizards. Although it wasn't as strong as the first time, the feeling of hate, fear and distrust hit me as soon as I saw his sickly smile.

"Welcome back Mr. Hyuuga," he drawled, which Natsume ignored. "I'm glad that you got my message." That was directed at me. I nodded stiffly. He smiled again and waved us to one of the open elevators that were lined up. Once inside, he swiped a card that he was dangling around his neck and pressed a button to the top floor. The machine lurched up; going faster than my stomach was capable of.

We didn't stop and soon we were at the second to the top floor. There was only on door, decorated on the side with flower vases, and there were no walls; the whole floor was enclosed in glass windows. The elevator closed with a dull thud and I heard a whirl of engine as it made its decent.

Persona led us to the entrance or more specifically Natsume since he stopped me from going in the room after Natsume. I pulled my hand back from his grasp and gave him a hard look. "Yes?" I inquired.

"People not part of the Hyuuga business should not listen in to the company's affairs." He gave me a twisted grin and promptly slammed the door in the face before I could let out a breath.

I actually growled, which surprised me. I don't remember ever being this angry at a person before. Obviously, Persona was an easily hate-able person, but I felt more than hate when I saw him. In any case, I wonder how a person like him ended up working for Mr. Hyuuga.

I was laying down on one of the benched pushed against the window wall, balancing a leaf that I got from the flower vase when the door opened again and a group of people in business suits congregated out. I looked at the clock and saw that two hours had already past. If only Jinno's class went by this fast.

"So you're still here eh?" Grandfather Hyuuga walked towards me with Takashi and Natsume in tow. I didn't see Persona nearby.

"Yes, sir." I gave him a smile.

"Good, I hate people who give up to easily." I took that as his way of complementing me.

Takashi's head popped up over the older Hyuuga's shoulders. "I heard about your feat in the Skill Competition." He patted me in the back. "Congratulations Mikan! Didn't know you had it in you."

"Thank you. It's too bad I couldn't continue," I remarked.

"Nonsense. You did more than enough. Don't you think so father?" All he got was a grunt in reply.

I laughed. "Still I wanted to try for the Best Protector award."

"You've still got next year," came a deep voice from next to me. Grandfather Hyuuga, who was talking to one of the members of the meeting, stopped in mid-sentence. He gave Natsume a scrutinizing look and then analyzed me as well.

Then he returned to his previous audience. I tried to figure out his reaction; wondering what Natsume had said that could have made him react this way. Natsume's eyes widened and he grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the elevator without a word to his family.

I waved to Takashi, who had a faint smile on his face, before the doors closed and held on the wall for support as the room dropped down. I wanted to ask Natsume about that scene, but he wasn't making eye contact with me.

Finally, as the bell signaled us that we reached our floor, I understood. Natsume said that I was going to participate in the next year's festival; which meant that he was planning on keeping me as his Aeterna.

I smiled as happiness flooded me. Just a few days ago the idea of being Natsume's Aeterna disgusted me to the point of tears, but now... One this I learned about him, this crimson eyes heir, was that he was picky. And for him to have chosen me to be with him gave me a sense of pride.

I left the building in better spirits than when I went in. New found energy surged in me and I was disappointed that we had to go back to campus.

As if he read my mind Natsume offered, "Do you want to go for lunch?"

"Lunch?" I asked, surprised that he suddenly brought it up.

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, lunch. Unless you don't want to." He added the last part in hurriedly; like he wanted to make sure I had an option.

I gave him a smile. "Yes."

We stopped at a bakery and cafe at a secluded area. I looked like an old cottage and the smell of baking bread mixed in with the scent of pine that surrounded the place.

The car parked on the gravel parking lot and I opened the door. "It's so pretty," I said. The inside was even better. Natsume took me to the seats at the counter that lay in front if the kitchen.

A plump woman came through the swinging doors and flourished menus from her apron pocket. "It's nice to see that you finally dropped by." She had a slight Tohoku dialect that gave away her origin.

Natsume responded with a nod and I gave him a questioning look which he didn't answer. Instead he said, "I recommend the blueberry pancake and sencha."

Shrugging, I took his council and ordered. The women smiled and said, "One moment." When she left, I tuned my seat to face Natsume. He was tracing the patterns on the wood table with a slender finger, looking lost in thought.

I snapped my finger in front of his face. "You've been here before?" I asked. I knew from the way the waitress greeted him, he's been here often.

He hummed a yes, still not fully here. "I used to come here with my mom."

"Oh," I said, not sure how to reply to the revelation. The arrival of the food saved me from having to say anything else. The aroma of freshly made pancakes filled the air and I heard my stomach growling. I didn't notice how hungry I've gotten and I dug in as soon as the meal hit the table.

"This is delicious," I exclaimed. The bread was a bit salty, which went well with the sweet and tartness of the blueberries. There was butter and sugar melted on it that made a caramelized crust. It was one of the best things I've ever tasted.

"Thank you dear," the hostess said. "I'll be sure to tell my husband that." She directed her attention to my neighbor who, despite disliking sweet things, was already half way done with his plate. "How is your family Natsume?"

He took a sip of his sencha and replied, "They're doing fine." The woman smiled. "Oh, how rude. I'm Keiko by the way." She held out her hand for me and I put down my hot tea to receive it.

"Mikan," I said.

"You have a beautiful name," she remarked. "So, how long have the two of you been dating?"

I head Natsume choke on his drink. "No no!" I said flustered and blushing. "We're not dating. I'm just his... friend." I was about to say Aeterna, but that would be too hard to explain to a non-Alice. So, I settled on the near truth. Because I didn't know if Natsume considers me a friend nor do I know when I started thinking of him as one.

"You are too cute," she said. Her eyes were twinkling with merriment. "I know Kaoru would be happy if she met you." She petted Natsume's head softly and left us to ourselves.

The air was uncomfortable and it was silent. I busied myself by playing with the tea leaves in my sencha. Finally he said, "Sorry."

"For what?" My voice cracked from being quiet for too long.

"We came here so often that she thinks she part of my family."

"It was just a misunderstanding Natsume. I'm sure she says that to all the other girls you bring here."

"I've never brought anyone here before," he confessed. I looked at him wide-eyed. "Not even Ruka or the others." He met my eyes. "You're the first."

"Why?" I whispered.

He shrugged and turned his gaze away from me. "I felt like I should."

I really don't get this man. He bosses me around and treats me like a slave one second, and then in another, he brings me to his sacred places that even his friends don't know about. His moods swing so much that it's making me dizzy.

Keiko waved us goodbye from the porch of the cottage. I got some free bread to take home and the car smelled appetizing by the time we arrived at the academy. We didn't talk the whole way back, each of us looking out our own windows.

It was already dark when I stepped out of the car, even though there was still a few more hours till dinner. But, I didn't feel like I would be hungry.

We walked back to the dorm and we separated in the hall. Our rooms were right across one another. A fact that I never realized before now.

"Good night," I called. He nodded his head and opened the door. Before he walked in his room I said, "Thanks for bringing me to the cafe." He glanced back at me. "Take me again sometime." I thought I saw what a faint smile at his lips was before he closed the door.

* * *

><p><strong>I probably won't be able to update until after June, when school is over and I get back from my family trip and week-long camp. I hope you guys wont lose interest by that time! <strong>

**Oh and thank you to everyone who reviewed! I have 50 reviews so far (which is by far the most I've ever gotten) and I hope to receive more! **Thanks for reading! ****

**-Knight**


	12. Chapter 12

**I know, I know... I'm a huuuuuuuuuge liar. It's almost the END of July and I haven't published like I promised so I'm really really sorry! I hope the people that were reading my work haven't gave up on me yet! I promise the I'll try to be regular and update constantly! Please don't leave me! D: **

**And for the people that haven't read this before, I hope you enjoy my story!**

* * *

><p>"Good morning class," Mr. Narumi sang. As usual no one in the class replied or took notice. Also, as usual, our energetic teacher was wearing something painfully eye catching.<p>

"Does he get his clothes from the school's theater closet?" I hear Natsume mutter next to me in our seat.

Ruka's voice carried over from Natsume's other side. "Actually, we use his clothes for our plays." Koko tried, and failed, to stifle a laugh in front of us.

"Did he lend you the Snow White dress too?" Mochu whispered. I looked past Natsume and saw that Ruka was blushing. I vaguely remember the rumors that I heard one time about how Mr. Narumi forced Ruka to act the leading part in the school's production of Snow White. I also heard that showing sold out faster than any other show in Alice history.

"I have something momentous to tell you guys today!" The teacher raised his voice above the student's chattering. Groaning echoed and I prayed that it wasn't going to be another surprise exploration field trip. "All Aeternos and their masters must follow Mr. Fukutan to take a test!"

I didn't remember a test being part of the deal, but I got up willingly and followed Koko and Yuu. Ruka and Mochu stayed in the classroom with some other without Aeternos.

Mr. Fukutan's long pony tailed hair bounced in front of us as we were led out of the building and into another one near the edge of the woods.

The building looked simple and plain on the outside and it reflected on the inside as well. The walls were a metallic white and the only thing adoring it was two doors. There was nothing else in the room except for the group in the middle.

They were all wearing a skin tight sneak suit. The black material made the people in it look so commanding that nobody in the room uttered a word as they herded us in to two groups: Aeternos to the right door; the masters to the left.

One the sneak-suited girls stood in the rift between our two groups and introduced herself as Jane. She was an American with short spiky black hair and eyes that was as blue as sapphires. She cleared her throat loudly and spoke to us in fluent Japanese.

"In order for Aeternos to be the best," she began in a deep commanding voice. "They must be fearless. So fearless that they will not let their own fears deter them from their duty." She paused and let the crowd sink in her words. "This is why we, the Aeterno Committee, are here today."

She walked towards the right door, her steps never making a sound. "Behind this door." She knocked on the metal surface. "Is a virtual stimulator. It is designed to scan your mind and pick out the things that scare you the most. Then it will create a scenario where you will have to defeat or overcome your fear."

She pointed to the door on the right. "You master will be able to see your process from that room." With that she called out a pair of names. A girl went through the left door and her mistress through the other.

I saw on that cold hard floor for what felt like hours, my legs slowly going numb. There was unease in the Aeterno group as, one by one, the Aeternos came out of the stimulation room. Some came out find, better even, with looks of success on their face, but most came back pale. One girl was shaking so badly that she had to be carried out. While they helped her on to a chair, she was muttering something about clowns.

Finally it was my turn. I got up slowly and fell back down again as I tried to stand on my sleeping legs. Yuu helped me up and I waved goodbye to him as I approached the door. I gripped the handle and looked across the room and saw that Natsume was already walking in without a glance in my direction.

I faced the door again and took a deep breath, and did the same.

The inside of the stimulation room was made out of metal. The air was cold, making my breath a wispy white. In the middle of the room was a throne like chair; it was huge and it looks like it was wielded from the floor.

Shivering, I made my way over and saw that on its seat, there was something that looked like a motorcycle helmet. With a sickening twist in my gut, I flashed back to one of the lessons in psychology that I took as my elective in middle school.

The teacher presented a black and white picture to the class of an empty room and a single man tied in a straight jacket. The view before me was startlingly similar to the cells that the hospitals that "treat" the mentally insane had.

I grabbed the helmet and sat on the cold seat. I almost expected shackles to spring up and bind me, but even as I waited, nothing happened. Suddenly a voice rang through the room. "Just sit back and place the stimulation helmet on your head."

I did was I was told and the refrigerator that I was currently in disappeared behind the glass of the helmet and was instead replaced with a countdown on the screen. I saw the numbers trickle down and as it steadily reached one, I started getting sleepy. When it reached the end I closed my eyes.

XXX

I was in a lab. There was a bunch of adults in white coasts and the scent of chemicals hung in the air. The alikeness of this scene and my dream was so close that I reached my hand out to grasp the bars of my cage and found that there was none.

The scientist didn't seem to notice me as I walked around and I explored more of the place. After my initial shock, I noticed that this wasn't the same lab that we found underground, or the one in my dream. But the similarity was frightening.

Everyone looked busy; they were writing reports, running tests, and doing other who-knows-what's. There was also a large number of kids in the room, which was kind of weird since this definitely looked like a serious science laboratory. Unless this was bring your kids to work day. I started to doubt that notion when I saw the treadmills.

There was a line of them along with other exercising equipment. One of the kids running, who looked like twelve, had a breathing mask on his face, like the ones they have in hospitals, that was hooked up to a machine. There was also wires leading from the computer and plastered on his skin.

A researcher held a stop watch in his hands. I stuck up behind him and peered over his shoulders. The watch read an hour and forty minutes, yet the boy didn't seem tired at all.

A loud bang came from the door to my right. Four scientists came in dragging a screaming little girl between them. The girl was wearing a pure white dress, with red patterns splashed across it, which was too short on her, exposing her bruised and scarred legs. The men tried to calm her down, but they only succeeded in making her cry harder.

"Don't make me do it again!" she pleaded. She tried to escape back towards the door, but the men blocked and surrounded her. One of the scientists sighed and pulled out a black pen.

"Don't make this harder than it needs to be," he said. The girl didn't give any notion of hearing him and continued to scream. He clicked the top of the pen and the tip glowed blue. The child choked on her tears and spasm when it touched her shoulder. I gasped when a red dot blossomed on the white, exactly like the ones covering her dress.

The man who electrocuted her clicked the pen again and put it away. "Get her set up," he ordered. I didn't stick around to find out what they were going to do; instead, I went out the door the bleeding girl came from and ran.

I sprinted in random directions, flying past white walls and with steel doors, until I hit a dead end. Sliding to my knees, I put my head down and tried to breath. I told myself that this wasn't real and it was just a dumb stimulation, but a nagging feeling of familiarity bothered me.

I was still talking to myself when a voice echoed down the hall. "Mikan," it called. I stood up warily and my name was repeated again. Without thinking, I began to chase it, turning corners and running down long hallways, all the while never meeting anyone along the way.

I ended up in front of a door that looked sturdier than the others, equipped with a pass code lock. The voice came to me again, this time from inside the room, and my hand reached out and touched the surface of the metal.

With a whoosh, it opened, blowing wind in my face. There was a group of lab coats looking through a window. I stepped in slowly and made my way over the glass, the scientist never recognizing my presence.

I didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't a bunch of wolves in a room. They were huge, and covered in bristling black fur. If it wasn't for their tail, I would have mistaken them for a small bear.

They were surrounded in the middle forming a big, yet tight, circle. Loud growling rang through them and many had the head bent to the ground as if weary of the object in front of them. It wasn't until one of the canines moved that I saw what was in the middle of their group.

"No," I whispered even though I wanted to scream. Her purple hair stood out in the black of the wolves. She looked scared, trying to keep distance between her and the hunters, but there was nowhere to go. I banged on the glass. "Hotaru!" I screamed. Her eyes met mine and her hand extended towards me. A silent plea for help.

I tried looking for a way to her, but there was no doors only this big looking glass. The wolves surrounded her again and when I got another glimpse between them, it was Hotaru that was trapped, it was Anna.

Then it was Nonoko, Yuu, Koko, Principal Yukihara, and other faces flashed through. I watched with terror as the people I know took turns being the object of the wolves' attention. Then a person I've never seen before replaced them.

"Mikan," he called. He had blue hair that stood up in spikes with a lock of snow white hair falling in front of his eyes. His arm was out towards me too, but instead of calling for help like Hotaru, he was shooing me away. "Don't watch this," he told me.

A wolf launched, and as much as I wanted to close my eyes, I couldn't look away. I stared in mute shock as he got swallowed in a sea of fur. I heard a scream from somewhere, repeating a number over and over. I didn't realize that it came from my mouth until someone grabbed my shoulders.

I twisted and escaped from the grip. "Zero!" I screamed. The pack separated from a second, revealing a bloody body on the floor. I thought he was dead, but his head came up and he looked at me.

"Run," he whispered and his head fell back. Tearing my eyes away from the site of feasting canines, I turned around and saw that all the scientist in the room was watching me now, each with an electrocuting pen in their hands.

Before they could surround me, I dashed forward and made it through the metal doors before they closed. I felt the bang of the door closing behind me, but I took off, not looking back. The white hallways were now dyed in red as alarms rang.

There were people everywhere running and talking in loud voices. In the crowd I saw men with skin tight black clothes on holding a staff that sparked with blue energy. One of them saw me and called the others over. I ran in the other direction before they could catch me.

There was metal gates falling from the ceiling everywhere I passed blocking my routes, forcing me to turn back and find a new path of escape. Soon there was nowhere to run except into a room that was open. I heard voices behind me and seeing nowhere else to hide, went in.

The room was pitch dark so I stopped. The people chasing me came in and I backed away slowly, trying to keep distance between me and the staffs. My heart was beating so fast and loud that I didn't hear someone sneaking up next to me.

I let out a cry as I felt the charge course through my body and locking up my muscles. I fell to the ground in a numb heap. The pain came back quickly though and soon I could feel the hot stickiness on my side; my whole body screaming with pain.

"Welcome back Experiment D1," a deep voice announced. "So glad to have you join us again."

"No," I weakly protested. I tried to throw off the hands that bonded me to the floor, but my arm wouldn't respond.

There was a shushing sound from overhead. "Now, now. Don't move. We won't hurt you unless we need to," it cooed. I felt someone pushing up my sleeve. "This will give you a nice dream. Won't hurt a bit." I couldn't move to protect myself as the injector in his hand came closer.

When I woke up, I was in an unfamiliar bed. The walls surrounding me were pale green and a tang of disinfectants lingered in the air. "You're finally up." A voice came from the doorway. I lifted my head up and winced as I felt a pang of pain in my head. "Only you would get hurt in a stimulation," the exasperated voice said.

"At least it keeps your job interesting." I gave the familiar doctor next to me a smile.

He shook his head and continued making notes on his clipboard and checking the equipment standing around me."I need to tell my sister to keep a closer eye on you."

"I heard her rates for babysitting is high." I saw his lips turn up a little at that. "So, doctor Imai, how bad is it?" There was an insane amount of equipment in the room and I was hooked up to almost all of it.

His pen made a few more scratching noises and then he grabbed a chair, sitting himself near the side of my bed. "Nothing serious," he said. With a very serious look on his face.

"So this," I gestured to the equipment around me. "Is just an overreaction?"

He shook his head. "You just passed out during the stimulation and the machine overheated, almost melting your brain. If Natsume didn't get to you as fast as he did, you might be dead right now."

My mouth was open in a big "O" shape. "That's not serious?" I almost shrieked.

"Breath," Subaru told me. "Your brain is still recovering." As if on cue my head pounded with pain. He put a cooling patch on my head and I didn't realize how hot my body was until I felt the patch taking its effects. I took a deep breath, trying to relax my beating heart, which was afraid of the surrealness of the situation.

I cried out as a wave of pain roiled behind my eyes. Suddenly, I had a flash of vision. It was of an inside of a building. The area around me was burning; parts of the ceiling fell down around where I was laying down on the floor. The fire's heat licked my arms and legs, but I didn't feel it. All I could feel were the tears running down my cheeks.

"Mikan!" I gasped. I was back in the hospital room again with Subaru's arms on my shoulders, steadying me as I shook violently. I was breathing hard and sweat covered my body, the cooling patches not cold enough for my burning body. "Calm down Mikan!" Subaru yelled. I felt him put another patch on my forehead, my breathing and heartbeat slowed; he placed a calming patching on me.

"What happened?" he asked me, sitting back down looking as shaken as I felt.

It took me a while to find my voice. "I-I don't know," I stuttered. Subaru handed me a box of tissues. I stared at it, unsure what to do.

"You're crying," he explained. I reached up to my face and felt the moisture on my cheek, just like me in the fire.

I took his offered tissue and decided that talking about it might help me understand. "I saw something," I started. "I was in a building and it was on fire." Subaru stared at me silently imploring me to go on. "I was crying but not because of the burning; but because of something else." I stopped talking then, suddenly too tired.

"What were you crying about?" he asked and I shrugged, that what I wanted to know too. Subaru patted my head, a brotherly gesture that he rarely performs. My vision got cloudy again from fresh tears, and I remembered the guy with blue hair being eaten by the wolves. I shook my head, trying to dispel the sadness that almost overcomes me every time that guy is brought up.

"That vision was probably just a side-effect, nothing bad," Subaru assured me, but it felt like he was trying to convince himself as well. He stood up and turned his back on me. "Try to get some rest."

I was unconscious before he left the room.

XXX

I woke up feeling super refreshed. My headache was gone and I could move my body again. I was ready to leave and start walking again, but Subaru wanted to hold me for another day. But I was tired of being trapped in a room and tied down on a bed, so after a few minutes of yelling, he gave in and brought a nurse in to run some tests on me. The found nothing to hold me here and just like the last time, my friends were waiting outside for me.

"How are you feeling Mikan?" Nonoko asked.

I gave her a hug. "Better, thanks." Anna and Nonoko both had frightened looks on their faces and they stood close to me as if I would collapse at any second. But I knew that this was nothing compared to how they would have acted if they knew how close I'd been to having my head full with melted brain, a fact that I begged Subaru not to tell anyone, even Natsume.

So the story that everyone got was that I fainted during the stimulation and hit my head as I fell. By the intense look that Hotaru was giving me, her brother wasn't very successful at selling that story to her. "Hey there stranger," I called. Her body collided into mine so fast that I had to take a step back to keep us both from falling over.

"Don't ever do that again," she whispered in my ear.

"Hotaru's hugging!" Anna cried and jumped in; Nonoko joined in as well.

"Guys, I can't breathe," I groaned and they all pulled away at once, stuttering apologies and making sure I was still in one piece. I was convincing them that I was alright when my stomach growled, startling me. Everyone around me laughed, even Hotaru.

"Do you want to go eat?" she asked me. I nodded my head vigorously. We decided on Chinese and so we took the shuttle bus to Central Town, the shopping district in the middle of our campus that held all of our stores and restaurants. The waitress greeted us in Chinese as we passed the red towering gates of out favorite place to eat. "The usual please," I asked the lady standing by our table.

"Already on it," she replied. Yes, we come here that often. Soon out table smelled of exotic spices and my mouth was full of steaming fried rice. The last thing I ate was the apple sauce the nurse gave me this morning so my stomach was like a black hole.

I was just finishing scarfing wantons down my throat when Anna asked, "Did you get a dress for the Tea Party yet, Mikan?"

"No," I mumbled, or something that sounded close to it because I already replaced the wantons with spring rolls. It surprised me how fast time went by, with everything that's been happening lately, I forgot the promise I made to go to the party.

"That perfect!" Nonoko cried. I started at her questionably and she gave me a devilish smile that warned me she was going to propose something I won't like. "We wanted to puck your dress," she giggled.

Pink fluffy dresses and five inch heels flashed though my mind. This time I had my mouth empty as I said, "No."

"Why not?" Anna whined. "We'll make you look super cute and pretty! Knowing you, you'd probably go in your jeans and T-shirt."

Nonoko knocked on the table to signal that it was her turn to talk. "We also haven't hung out together in a while," she said. And then she did something she knew I couldn't fight back against; her famous guilt tripping puppy eyes. "Please?"

With those powerful dark watering blue eyes directed at me, I didn't have a chance. "Fine," I sighed. They did have valid points though; I needed a dress and I haven't spent time with these two lately apart from lunch. "Are you coming too Hotaru?"

Her purple hair swayed as she shook her head. "I already got mine."

"It's decided then! We'll go next week, I'll even make lunch," Anna declared.

Hotaru's eyes twinkled at the prospect of free food. "If you serve crab meat, I'll come too."

XXX

Since I only interact with Natsume during school, I had no idea where to find him on a Sunday. So I spent a good two hours running around campus and asking people for him whereabouts but with no luck. Tired and out of breath, I sat down under the cherry blossoms tree, where I first met Natsume, that was still magically blooming. I felt a headache coming on and I regretted running right after my big lunch, but I badly wanted to find and thank Natsume right away.

My head was really pounding now and I winced as I tried to massage it away. "A person just discharged from the hospital shouldn't be rushing about." I jumped and immediately clutched my head as the movement stirred a sharp pain. I looked up at where the voice came from and saw the bottoms of a pair of shoes falling towards me.

I felt the impact next to on the ground and turned to face the crimson eyes of my master. "And a master shouldn't scare his injured Aeterna," I snapped back.

"Sorry," he replied, his face completely sincere.

"No, wait," I said. "I'm being stupid." Natsume rolled his eyes but checked his tongue. I took a deep breath and tried again. "Thank you," I whispered. "If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be here right now... because I would still be in the hospital." I added the last part in quickly. I forgot that I asked Subaru to keep the incident a secret.

"Don't be so dramatic," he told me. I was never good at things like this, apologizing and being emotional, and from the stiff posture and the lack of eye contact told me that he wasn't experienced in this area either.

I reached my hand in my skirt pocket and pulled out a black box tie with a red ribbon. I held it out for him without a word and he took it just as silently. I picked up the gift on the way back from Central Town and I chewed on my lips nervously, hoping he wouldn't completely hate it. I saw his eyebrows raise as the ribbons fell away and he opened the box. In it was a silver ankh charm hanging from a chain. In its center was a ruby stone the color of Natsume's eyes, the primary reason why I picked it out.

"I know it may be too feminine for you and you'd probably wanted a better gift," I began "but I wanted to give you something to show my gratitude." Natsume was quietly fingering the charm and I was afraid that he was going to reject it, but with one swift movement, he pulled the necklace out of the box and over his head.

"Just don't do it again," he said, sounding oddly like Hotaru. I nodded my head vigorously, not able to control the spreading smile on my face. Seeing this Natsume leaned over towards me and gave me flick on the head. "Go rest," he ordered "or else you'll end up in the hospital again."

"Yes, sir," I saluted, my headache already gone.

* * *

><p><strong>I could really use a review so I can know if you guys hate me or not... :'(<strong>


	13. Chapter 13

**Ok... So I'm a liar. I haven't updated like I promised. Here is the chapter that I just finished today. I started it like a year ago and it just kinda stayed in my notebook. I don't have a decent excuse, just the usual ones: school work, unexpected moves, ect. I'm really really sorry to the readers that reviewed for me and were waiting for the next chapter. I'm pretty sure you guys wont remember the story, but if you'd like, please read this chapter! I'm really sorry!**

* * *

><p>Monday morning was a hassle. As soon as I stepped through the door with Hotaru, I was bombarded by the rest of the class with questions. A chorus of "Are you ok?"' and "What happened?" surrounded me and I smiled and answered them positively without showing how much their loud voices hurt my head.<p>

A warm hand touched the small of my back and the crowd instantly backed off, giving me more room to breathe. "Move," Natsume said, which was really unnecessary since everyone already scrambled out of the way. I had already guessed the it was Natsume behind me; no one else held that much fear and control to be able to silence a room with just his presence.

He didn't remove his hand from my back until I sat down in our usual seat; in the cluster of friends. I saw Luna glaring at me from across the room and I quickly looked away. "Welcome back to the land of the living," Koko greeted me jokingly; not knowing how close that was to the truth.

"Thanks," I replied. We talked for a few minutes about pointless things since our group already knew the whole story, but then the bell rang. Normally, we would continue talking, but today, unfortunately, we had Jinno first period. Apparently, he decided to follow Luna's example to continue to hate me with no exceptions and gave the class a pop quiz. Of course, I passed with full marks.

The bell for lunch finally rang and Mr. Misaki packed up his singing plants. I stood up as Mochu moved the desks and I went to go get Natsume's lunch with Yuu. By now I knew some of Natsume's favorites and dislikes (which I found out through painful trial-and-error), so I loaded the plate with tuna sushi and a side of miso soup. When I came back Mochu and Koko were whispering to each other. "What's up guys?" I asked, place the plate on the table.

"Mochu's lovestruck," Koko announced. Ruka turned from his conversation with Natsume to stare at the buzz cut teen.

"On who?" Ruka asked incredulously. Mochu silently pointed a finger towards the hallway outside and replied, "On her." I followed his arm to where he directed and my eyes widened in surprise. Standing by the doorway with only their heads peeking in were Anna and Nonoko.

Quickly I walked over to them. "Hey guys," I greeted. "Sorry I'm late, I'll be out soon."

Nonoko waved a slender hand in front of her face. "No it's ok," she said. "Some middle schoolers were playing with water balloons so our spot if totally soaked."

"So we thought we could eat here," added Anna. I smiled and pulled on their hands, dragging them over to introduce them to the group. I knew immediately which of the girls Mochu preferred by the way his face turned red when she told him her name. By the glint in Hotaru's eyes, she knew it too. I shuddered to think of all the blackmail that Mochu was about to receive.

There was enough room in our makeshift picnic bench, and we all sat down to eat. "So what's your Alice?" Mochu asked Anna as soon as he recovered from being dumbstruck.

"Cooking," she replied and opened her lunch box. Today's Anna Special was Parmesan chicken. The thermo box that Anna prepared for the each of us released steam as I opened it and I could hear the boys inhaling the scent of the food.

I saw Koko staring intently at my food and laughed. "Jealous?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, unabashed. I scooped some pasta with my fork and placed it on his plate. It was gone in two seconds. "That was the best spaghetti I have ever ate."

An arm came from behind me and grabbed my lunch box. Natsume took a bite and gave it back to me. "Not bad," he commented. I thought Anna's head was going to blow as all the blood rushed to her face. By now Mochu was jumping up and down on his seat and begging for some pasta, but no one shared with him.

In the end, the boys traded their lunches for ours, except for Hotaru, who growled at everyone who came near her thermos, and Anna offered to make lunch for tomorrow. Mochu's eyes lit up at the prospect of seeing Anna tomorrow, and a couple of days passed by peacefully.

The shock of the incident began to wear off and Natsume stopped being so overprotective of me. The way he shielded me from the whispers and stares made warm feelings wash over me, and I knew that I would forever be grateful to him. Yet, I didn't notice the change in him when he came to class Thursday until Ruka pointed it out.

We were having lunch with the usual rowdy group, when Natsume left to go use the bathroom. As soon as he was out of earshot, Ruka turned to us and said, "I wonder what's wrong with him."

Mochu pulled his face out of his lunch, Anna's tonkatsu, long enough to breath out, "Yea, I've been thinking the same thing."

"Do you know anything Mikan?" Yuu asked me, but I could only shake my head in response. Now that I thought about it, Natsume has been gloomier than usual; I actually haven't been made fun of by him at all. Something serious must of happened, and guilt began seeping in for my lack of awareness. I looked anxiously at the door that Natsume left through and wondered what was going on with him.

Natsume never came back from the bathroom.

XXX

"Hey!" I called from the window. After classes ended I, along with the rest of the gang, combed the school in search of Natsume, but came up empty. After the sunset, we called it quits and retired to our rooms. I pressed my ear against Natsume's door but didn't hear any movement inside, so I called his phone, only to get sent to his voicemail.

I sighed and went to my balcony for some fresh air, when I saw Natsume sitting in the garden below me. He looked up at my voice, but if he showed any emotion, I couldn't see it from this high up. The elevator ride seems to take forever, but when I finally got outside, he was still in the same spot.

"Where were you?" I asked, lightly smacking his arm. He didn't respond, but just stared at me blankly, like I was part of the scenery. "What's wrong?" I whispered. His mouth moved, but no words came out. I was starting to become afraid that he must have lost his mind and feared for the worst.

I placed a hand gently on his shoulders and it seemed to have an effect on him because he croaked, "My grandfather's dying."

My hand gripped his shoulder hard, but he didn't seem to register it. "When did you find out?"

"Last night." His head fell into his hands. "He was hospitalized a few days ago, but today I got a call that his heart stopped beating. That's why I didn't come back."

"Is he..."

"He's fine," Natsume said quickly. "At least his heart started beating again, but he's going to have to stay in critical care for a while." His voice a little towards the end and he lifted his head to look at me, at my reaction. All I could see was his slightly watery eyes and without thinking I folded Natsume into my arms. I flashed back to the time when I got a similar call about my grandpa. I was disbelieving, scared, angry, and most of all devastated. I knew Natsume must be going through the same thoughts. I also know that the last thing you want to do in this situation is to feel all those conflicting emotions.

Thinking quickly of ways to make Natsume feel, on if slightly, better, I made a split decision. "Come on," I said, pulling him up. "Follow me." Caught off guard by the change in events, he followed me quietly, letting me pull on his arm as I led him to the rear of the Special Star dormitory, where the Northern Woods began.

We entered under the canopy of trees; the thick leaves blocked out the stars, and we were plunged into the darkness. After five minutes of silent walking, we came up to a portion if the brick wall that encloses the Academy.

I discovered this place during my middle school years. Spending a year trapped in this school had me itching to get out - if only just a little. I ran around the whole perimeter of the Academy, starting at the main gate, seeking for any weak spots in the twenty foot blockade. It was here that I found that the gardeners that usually maintained the grounds have left some ivy growing on the wall, and the roots of the ivy loosened the bricks, allowing me to slip enough of them out to form a hole big enough for me to go through.

I haven't snuck out in a while and the prospect of getting some "outside" air excited me. I traced an outline of the loose bricks with my index finger and stepped back. I held my right hand in front of me and clenched it, pulling it towards me in the process. There was a quiet scraping noise as twenty or so bricks slid free from the cement and floated towards me. I levitated them in a neat pile on the ground.

We were free.

Being out in secret, with no one to watch over us, feels different than going out with an escort. It felt more gratifying and as I glanced at Natsume's face I knew he felt the same. His face showed more color and his crimson eyes sparkled in the moonlight.

It took us a good ten minutes to get to the main road, but from there it was easy to grab a taxi. I was glad that both of us had changed out of our uniforms - the driver hardly gave us a second glance as we entered the car. "Odaiba Beach please," I requested; I got a nod in reply.

"What's there?" Natsume asked wearily. I pointed out the window towards the sky where bright flashing fireworks illuminated the sky.

"A festival."

Stalls full of food and games filled the shore of the man- made beach. The crowd was huge, and the different colors of yukatas assaulted my eyes. It was also loud, which is why I brought Natsume here. The happy laughing people, the booth owners advertising their goods, and the fireworks that went off periodically made it hard to hear your own thoughts. I wanted to keep Natsume away from dark thoughts - even for a little while.

It seems like my tactic was working; already his eyes held less sadness and instead reflected the lights of the festival. I smelled the spice of yakisoba and takoyaki, and realized that Nastume didn't come to the cafeteria for dinner. "Hungary?" I asked. Natsume's eyes shifted from the scenery to me. He didn't reply but opted to walk in front of me to the food stand.

We played, ate, and drank until I almost drooped with exhaustion. Nastume bought shaved ice to gain some energy back, and I savored the sweet beans of my zenzai shaved ice as we sat down with the crowd to watch the fireworks finale. The water lit up in different colors according to the explosives, and everyone made a noise of contentment at the rapid shots of fireworks that signaled the end of the show.

With the amount of people here we were lucky to find a vacant taxi. Since we couldn't get dropped off at the Academy for obvious reasons, we got off at the nearest housing area after Natsume shook me awake. We walked a good quarter of a mile to reach the opening in the brick wall.

"They just had to put up a teleportation block," I mumbled. I heard a chuckle behind me as I worked on filling up the hole.

I was glad the Natsume was still in a good mood as we walked back to the dorms. We were silent, both equally tired - which meant that Natsume would fall asleep quickly tonight without time to dwell on dark thoughts. We parted ways in front of out individual doors.

I don't know what came over me, but before I knew it I was giving Natsume a hug. I felt his body stiffen and I pulled back a little, my arms still around his torso. We stared at each other, his face unreadable. Then slowly his face loomed closer to mine until our foreheads touched. He closed his eyes, so I mimicked him. I felt his arms wrap loosely around me and his breath ghosted my face.

I don't know how long we stayed in the position, with no words passing between us, but I felt myself nodding off, so I said the only thing that came to mind. "I'll be here for you." He didn't respond and I didn't have the energy to wait, so I pulled myself away from his warmth, and turned to open my door.

"Good night," I called back as I entered my room and shut the door behind me. I leaned against the door and sighed. After a few moments, I heard Natsume enter his room. Ignoring the heat that was creeping up on my face, I got up, changed, and went straight to my bed, letting sleep take me hostage.

* * *

><p><strong>So I'm not completely sure if I will be continuing this story. I just seem to lack the motivation, and the ability to fulfill promises... I guess it'll depend on the reader outcome of this chapter. Hope you guys enjoyed!<strong>


	14. Chapter 14

**I wanted to post this chapter as soon as possible so I could assure you guys that I WILL BE continuing the story! I guess I kinda found my muse again and I realized that I really love writing. I wanted to see how this story finishes as well, as some of you have told me. **

**I want to thank _ayashi-kun12, Anime Mango, charmingsakura, aniAngelxx, Vagmaster, natsumefruit, bambi bambolina, Shadow in Midnight, vna, and Duck Eggs Are Amazeballs _(whose long and detailed review would have made me feel guilty if I didn't continue the story) for giving me inspiration again. I also want to thank any other reader that likes my story!  
><strong>

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Friday. It was only Friday.<p>

I groaned and rolled out of bed, taking my screaming alarm clock with me - a literal screaming alarm clock; Hotaru made it for me so I would actually start waking up on time. I sat up on the floor slowly, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I did so, and checked the time. A yawn that I was about to release got stuck in my throat as I noticed I only had ten more minutes before the bell rang for class. I shot up and rushed about to get ready.

I crammed myself into my uniform and slung my tie around my neck, not bothering to tie it. Running to the kitchen, I grabbed a yogurt and a spoon while singing "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" My hand touched the doorknob when I remembered that I didn't have my bag with me, so I doubled back and yanked it off the chair the it was hanging on.

I barely took a step out the door when I ran into something hard and solid. "Na-Natsume?" I choked out around the spoon that I almost swallowed. By the position of this raised hand, I deducted that I caught him right before he was going to knock on my door.

"You're late," he said simply.

"I wasn't aware we were meeting up," I replied as I hurriedly picked up the yogurt (thankfully unopened) that I dropped from the floor. I looked up and searched his face and saw that there were no dark circles under his eyes, which shows that he didn't stay up, as I hoped, after we got back last night. Then something else caught my attention. "Wait, were you waiting for me?"

There was a pause and then he made his famous "Hn" noise. He turned and walked towards the elevator, with me hurrying to catch up with his long strides, making it into the shaft before the doors closed. We rode down in comfortable silence, and without meaning to, or actually noticing it, I peeked at Natsume from the corner of my eyes every few seconds.

Suddenly, a flash of silver caught my eye. "You wore it," I remarked with surprise and a smile spread on my face. Natsume remained quiet and fingered the tiny Egyptian charm. I was glad it suited him nearly as well as I thought I did when I first laid eyes on the necklace. I felt like I was floating as I stepped off the elevator, not even the prospect of seeing Jinno could put me out of my elation.

Entering the classroom today was less hectic than yesterday, probably due to that fact that we were three minutes late - Natsume got to sit down without a word from Jinno, while I had a white board eraser thrown at my head - and the fear that if anyone bothers me they would be set to flames by the powerful firecaster.

Thankfully, the rest of the class time was uneventful, and soon Anna and Nonoko were sitting beside me as they joined for lunch. There was a dark gloom around Natsume and everyone tried their best to dispel it. Anna brought out her mutant gingerbread men that she made during culinary that all jumped on Koko as soon as she placed them on the table. There were cries of "The giant has fallen!" from the cookies and Koko's yelps of pain as they beat him that soon had us falling to the floor, too, in laughter. Even Natsume cracked a smirk.

We were all digging in Anna's tomato risotto (except for Koko, who was in a fetal position on the floor, mumbling), when Mr. Narumi walked into the classroom. "Natsume," he summoned, a sympathetic look on his face.

Without a word, Natsume stood up and followed the teacher to the door. Then he paused and looked back. "Mikan," he called. I was out of my seat with our bags and next to him in a heartbeat. I waved back to the group, who, with the rest of the class, had curious and worried faces; I supposed by now all of the Special Stars would have known about the situation as all of them, and their families, benefitted from the Hyuuga Corps in some way.

There was the redundantly long black car waiting outside for us again with Serio standing in front of it. I saw Mr. Narumi give Natsume a pat on the shoulder, which he didn't seem to register, before turning around and heading back inside. The dark haired secretary wordlessly opened the back seat door for us and waited until we were situated before he closed it. As soon as Serio closed his own door, the car pulled out towards the main gate.

Natsume's stoic countenance melted away as we hit the main road; he let out a loud sigh and cradled his head in his hand. I placed my hand on top of his that was making a tight fist on his leg. "It's going to be ok," I said, both of us knowing that there was no way to guarantee that outcome. But he didn't call me out on that, instead he turned his hand over and interlocked his fingers through mine.

My heart picked up a painfully fast pace causing me to breathe deeply to calm myself down. I know Natsume didn't mean anything by this. He just needed some comfort and to know that he wasn't alone. Yet even as I tried to still my overactive heart, there was a faint glimmer of hope inside me - a hope for what, I wasn't quite sure. I didn't understand these waves of emotion that I felt when I was around Natsume, but this wasn't the time to figure out - even when another crash of shock and warmth flooded me when I realized that he had called me Mikan back in the classroom.

Serio's cold voice wafted in suddenly and I jumped. He had opened the partition that separated the back from the front and his dark eyes peered in. "Since there is little traffic today, the driver predicts that we will arrive at the hospital in half an hour." I nodded my head to show I heard. His eyes flashed briefly to our intertwined hands, but he made no comment, sliding the dark glass back in place.

For the whole drive, Natsume and I never made eye contact. Our hands rested in the space between us while we stared out our individual windows. I resisted the urge to look at his face, which wasn't as difficult as I imagined, probably because I knew that his face would have plastered the look of boredom that he so often wears, containing all other emotions inside.

The Tokyo City Hospital was a grand building. It was several stories high and covered in white paint that made it almost impossible to look at the building for more that ten seconds - even through the dark tint of the car window. Spring had matured into summer and the crying of the cicadas assaulted us as we stepped out of the vehicle. Natsume had let go of my hand and I tried to stuff the disappointment into a box as we walked through the sliding doors of the hospital.

Serio, Natsume, and I piled into the elevator, and Serio's long pale finger pressed the button for the highest level. At least this elevator traveled at a normal speed; I wasn't sure I could handle the racecar speed like the Hyuuga HQ's again.

We got off at the ding and were led to a room marked 1189. The secretary knocked softly, a muffled grunt was heard, and he opened the door to let us in. I was surprised when I was granted entrance as well - I was expecting to be forced out like at the meeting - but Serio stood by to let me in.

The elder Hyuuga was sitting up in bed with a newspaper, which he folded on his lap as soon as we entered. "Natsume!" he called, his deep wrinkles shifted as a large smile made its way on his face. "So glad you came!" I was surprised at the amount of vigor he had. He was usually more sullen and forceful, but instead of being forlorn as I was expecting, he was awfully cheery for someone whose heart just stopped.

"Hey old man," Natsume replied. He reached down and gave him a hug, an act of affection that I was surprised to see. I guess even if they do disagree and fight sporadically, they are still family and care for each other. I felt a pang of loss for my own grandpa. I shook my head, I promised myself not to think about it anymore.

I looked up and noticed that Grandfather Hyuuga's eyes were on me. "Ho-How are you doing?" I asked, slightly faltering under that intense stare that he was currently giving me. What happened to the joyful man that was there a second ago?

"Still living," he replied. I winced at the crudeness and saw that I was not the only one to do so, even Serio looked a bit pained.

I didn't keep track of how long we stayed in that room; it was long enough that I had settled into a chair and was starting to doze off. In the beginning the three male discussed business issues. They talked of money and products and other jargon that was way above my level of expertise (which was none when it come to business). Then they started to digress and I caught snippets of the two Hyuugas gossiping about an Aunt of Natsume's - by this time Serio was sitting down also with the elder Hyuuga's newspaper.

I found some bottles of water on a table so I decided to keep myself awake by practicing some control exercises. I opened a bottle and with my mind drew to water out. I looked around for some inspiration and saw a painting of a dove hanging on the wall. Using that as a guild I started to mold the water that was floating in midair. In about a minute, I had replicated the bird. I froze the water and I levated it to a table closest to the window. It landed with a dull thump. I admired the way the evening sun's rays hit the sleek ice of the wings.

I turned and opened another bottle. This time I wanted to make something a little more intricate. I started by making a coil that resembled a spring and froze it so I could add embellishments all around it. I grabbed another water bottle, and making sure to keep proportions, I fashioned wings out of them. I attached the two pieces together and placed it next to the dove to admire my sculpture.

It was a dragon. It curled into the air as if it was going to take flight, its great wings open to catch air, and its mouth was open either to let out a roar or a burst of fire. Too caught up in being proud with my work, I didn't notice that the room had gone quiet until someone broke it. "You have precise control over you magic," I jumped and turned around and saw that everyone in the room was staring at me. "I've never a child have that much control over water," remarked Grandfather Hyuuga.

"Oh!" I said, still surprised that I had an audience. "Thank you."

"Are you an elemental?" he asked.

"No, no. I'm not. I just had lots of practice." I spluttered. Did he really think that I was an elemental? An elemental is someone that can control one of the four main elements: water, fire, earth, and air. The history of wizards and Alice was believed to have originated with four men, each with one of these powers. Presently, a wizard blessed with one of these Alice is a rare occurrence; they are usually only found in families that can trace their roots to the original wizards - another reason why the Hyuuga's are respected so much. So me, having no blood family (that I know of), being an elemental would be impossible, but it was nice that I was considered one.

"Are you sure?" he pressed. "It would seem impossible to have that much power over water and not be an elemental." The elder Hyuuga seemed be deep in thought. "Do you know Yuka Azumi?" he asked suddenly.

His change in the line of questioning threw me off. "Yuka Azumi?" I clarified. He nodded his head. "No, I don't think I have."

He didn't look disappointed. "Of course not." He clapped his hand as if to stop his line of thoughts. "So what is your Alice?"

Oh great. I didn't like talking about my Alice. I had a useless Alice as a lot of people pointed out to me, and I didn't want the Hyuugas or Serio to make fun of me either. But I knew that I couldn't hide it from them forever; Natsume should already know anyway since he read my file. "It's.. Um..." I paused and took a breath. "It's nullification." I closed my eyes and waited for whatever judgement they were going to throw at me.

When none came, I risked a peek at the bed and saw that Grandfather Hyuuga actually looked lost for words. Serio, on the other hand, wasn't. "You have the nullification Alice?" he exclaimed. His sudden and unexpected burst of emotion threw me off guard; all I could do was nod.

He opened his mouth to say more, but the elder man cut him off: "That's a very rare Alice. I've only known one other person who wielded the same power," he whispered.

I perked my ears a little on that; I've never heard that someone else had the same Alice as me before. "Who?" I asked.

My question seemed to snap him out of his daze. "Oh, no one that you would know. I'm sorry to say that he lived before you were born." He clapped his hand again. "Well it is getting late, and I am a bit tired, so excuse me for asking you all to leave."

Natsume, who was silent during this whole discussion, stood up and patted his elder's hand. "I'll be back again. I'll bring Aoi too," he promised. His grandfather smiled gently in return.

Natsume seemed a lot brighter on the way back home. His grandfather's jovial mood must have eased the worry that had been building up inside. We even made small conversation, such as the dinner that will be served in the cafeteria today (my favorite: baked Zetti) and Jinno's homework pile that we have to hack through tonight.

Everyone at dinner seemed to notice the difference in Natsume too. Ruka smiled warmly as Nastume called Koko an idiot when he found out that his gingerbread man bites got infected. Our table was rowdy, Yuu was trying his best to calm down everyone, and my night became complete when Hotaru sat next to me with her plate of food.

"We're meeting up at eleven tomorrow in front of our dorms," she said as a way of greeting. I stared blankly at her, not comprehending. She gave me an exasperated sigh. "The Tea Party? Dress shopping? My crabs?"

I groaned. "That's right."

"Well don't be late or else I'll shoot you."

Mochu was apparently listening in on our conversation. "You guys are going to the Tea Party?" he asked.

"Against my will," I replied, scrunching up my face in disgust, while Hotaru merely nodded.

"Don't worry!" Koko exclaimed. "You'll look fine in a dress!"

Natsume turned his face towards me. "The only reason why you don't want to go is because you don't want to wear a dress?" he remarked.

"Well," I slowly said. "I wouldn't say it's the only reason, but it is a big one."

"Wow," Ruka said, shaking his head. "I've never thought the Mikan would lose to a dress."

"Lose?" I exclaimed. "How am I losing?"

"By letting a piece of cloth prevent you from going to the Tea Party, you have lost," he explained simply. There was a chorus of "Yea!" and "That's right!" from Koko and Mochu.

I pointed a fork at Ruka. "I have not lost! I'm getting that stupid dress tomorrow and I am wearing it to the Tea Party. So I win!" I stabbed the air at the last three words for emphasis. Ruka, instead of being intimidated like I hoped, just laughed and was soon joined by Koko, Mochu, and surprisingly Yuu.

"You're too easy," muttered Natsume.

* * *

><p><strong>Soooo I hoped you guys liked! I'm going to work extra hard to consistently upload new chapters, but I could use everyone's help as well. If ever you guys think that I start slack off, just send me like a howler or something :) Thanks for reading!<strong>

**-Knight **


	15. Chapter 15

**Heeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eee'sssssssssssssss the next chapter! I want to thank everyone that reviewed and read my story! I tried taking this chapter to a bit more of an emotional level, not sure how well I did, but I hope you enjoy!**

**I'm not sure if I had to do this for every chapter, but just in case...**

**Disclaimer! **

**I don't own anything that has to do with Gakuen Alice, except this story that I'm making. **

* * *

><p>I huffed as I sat down on a stone bench in front of the Special Star dome. It was Saturday, and, surprisingly, I was at our designated waiting spot on time. Mind, I did have Hotaru's screaming alarm clock and a cold shower to wake me up, but even then it took the image of an angry Hotaru to get me to walk out of my room and face gruesome day that was ahead of me.<p>

Dress shopping, or any shopping to be specific, if you already didn't notice, was not one of my favorite activities. I groaned as I imagined the hours of pure torture ahead of me. But I noticed that I haven't hung out with my friends in a while, so I was willing to spend time with them... No matter now much pain was involved.

It was a beautiful sunny day and I decided to lay down on the bench to watch the lazy clouds drifting overhead. Sometimes, I still get caught up in the beauty of the sky. It was large and seemingly never ending; I took hope and courage from that. As long as the sky continued to exist, so will I. The logic of that didn't make much sense to me either, but considering that the sky was one of the first things I saw of the outside world, I felt a special fondness for it.

The senery of my childhood was white and empty. I had no name, no identity, nothing to relate myself to. I just existed. So the first time I saw the sky I cried. It was right there as if it was waiting for me, right outside the walls of my confines, welcoming me into a new world. All the twinkling stars greeted me, and I cried in relief, knowing that I wouldn't be alone.

A curtain of bright pink suddenly covered my vision. "Sky gazing again?" I smiled at Anna in reply. She took a seat near my head and tipped her head back to look up. "You've always liked doing that, haven't you? In middle school, you would always be up on the roof at night. I was always afraid you were going to fall. You almost did one time."

I pushed myself up into a sitting position. "That was because a certain someone decided to surprise me." I said accusingly. Anna gave me a sheepish smile.

"I wanted to know what you were doing! It's not my fault you were so absorbed," she replied and stuck her tongue out at me. Her expression then became a little sober. "Why do you like staring at the sky so much?" she asked.

I shrugged. I wasn't ready to open that box yet. "I just do," I told her vaguely. I could tell that she wasn't satisfied with my answer, but before she could pester more out of me, Nonoko and Hotaru showed up. "Hey guys!" I called. "What took you guys so long?"

"Hotaru needed some help making a snow potion for her new Freeze Ray," Nonoko chimed. "We were so caught up in our work that we didn't realize the time!"

"Sorry," Hotaru simply offered in a tone that suggested that she wasn't apologetic in the least.

Anna jumped up and pulled my hand. "We better hurry if we want to catch the bus to Central Town on time!" she cried and broke out in a run, pulling me with her.

XXX

"No, she doesn't have enough cleavage to pull off that dress," Nonoko said, scrutinizing my figure.

I rolled my eyes. "Gee, thanks for that esteem-building compliment." I said sourly.

Nonoko waved off my sarcasm. "At least I'm honest." she replied. She clapped her hands loudly. "Next!" she called out.

I groaned and cradled my head in my hands as two store clerks dragged me back to the changing room. "How many more do I have to try on!" I cried as the dress I was currently wearing was torn from my body.

"Until we find the perfect one," Anna said from the other side of the closed curtain of the changing room. My cry of despair was muffled by the fabric of the new dress that was being forced over my head.

I barely stepped out of the small room with the new dress when Hotaru interjected. "No," she said. "You're not wearing a black dress, you look like a Halloween decoration." I actually stamped my foot in irritation when Nonoko clapped her hands again.

"Why aren't you guys trying on anything?" I yelled as I was ushered back into the changing room again.

"Oh Mikan, we found our dresses ages ago! You're the one that kept procrastinating." chided Nonoko.

"I bet you guys just wanted to fully enjoy putting me through this pain didn't you," I accused as I walked out to a small raised platform to show the new dress I had on.

Anna chuckled. "Does it seem like we're enjoying this that much? I was trying to hide my excitement." I pouted and stomped over to the trio that were lounging on a couch in front of the platform to look at myself in the three view mirror. I heard a gasp behind me. "Mikan..."

I turned around to glare at Anna, expecting a teasing remark, but instead got tackled by a hug. I barely caught myself on these ridiculous two inch heels that I was forced to wear before Nonoko launched herself at me too. I felt the cool hand of Hotaru grab my wrist to keep me from toppling over and I smiled a thanks from between the heads of the clinging girls.

"What's wrong with you guys," I asked, slightly out of breath from the panic of almost falling over. "I almost fell!"

"Sorry Mikan!" the girls cried simultaneously as they let go.

"It's just that you look so beautiful in this dress!" said Anna. Nonoko nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Looks like we found the perfect dress," remarked Hotaru receiving gleeful shouts from the girls and the worn out store clerks.

XXX

"I can't believe it took three hours to just find shoes, jewelry, and a dress," I sighed exasperatedly as I switched the growing number of bags to my other hand.

"But it was so much fun!" Anna gleefully said. If this is what girls do for fun all the time, I would like to switch genders.

I was just going to tell her so when Nonoko suddenly stopped in front of me causing me to walk in front of her. "Ouch," I groaned rubbing my nose. "What's wrong?"

"Sorry! I just remembered that I needed to go buy ingredients for the snow potion!" she exclaimed.

Hotaru let out a breath next to me. "That's right," she said. "Since you guys don't like the Science Store, we'll meet you guys up later."

"That's probably a good idea. I don't want to cause an explosion again," I laughed weakly. Hotaru muttered something that sounded like "klutz" and turned around.

"We won't take long."

When they disappeared in the thick crowd of Central Town I turned to Anna. "Where do you want to go?" she asked.

"I actually need to go to the bookstore," I told her. She gave me a suspicious glance. "What?" I asked.

"You want to go to a book store?" she asked incredulously, stressing the last two words.

Her face of disbelief made me laugh, although it was understandable. Even though I'm smart, I hate reading for fun; I never pick up a book other than the ones required for class. "It's not for me; it's for Natsume," I explained. "He asked me to get something." Natsume caught me right as I was leaving this morning and thrust a piece of paper, demanding me to get the book whose name was written on the paper before promptly slamming his door closed in my face. I didn't even get a _please_.

Anna accompanied me to Ink and Paper, Central Town's most popular bookstore. It wasn't that crowded and we made our way to the manga section easily. I pulled out the paper Natsume gave me and began to search for the title he wanted while Anna grabbed a book and browsed it leisurely next to me.

"You know, you've become kind of tame," she commented, eyes still on the pages of the manga.

I stopped my search and looked at her. "What do you mean?" I asked.

Anna didn't look up. "Well you know," she started. "Before you wouldn't have done something like this for him. Or you would at least be complaining loudly about it while doing it," she explained.

Huh, I didn't notice that. It's true that before I would have complained about doing something for Natsume, like getting him his food, but lately I haven't. "I guess," I realized. "I've just gotten to know him more and it made me understand him more?" It came out more as a question than a statement. While I have gotten to know him more and his personality, there are many things I don't know, and many things about him that still makes my blood boil in annoyance. So how come I'm here now, buying a book for him, something I wouldn't have done if he asked me a month ago.

While I was pondering this, Anna finally looked up from the book. "Do you like him?" she whispered.

I choked on my own saliva. "No!" I squeezed out between coughs. "No way!"

Anna didn't look convinced as she patted me on my back. "What do you think of him then?"

"Um... I don't know?" I offered, because right now, I really didn't know.

I felt Anna stiffen besides me as the words left my mouth. "So you can't even tell me that," she whispered. I was about to ask her what she means, but she fired off another question. "Am I your best friend?" she asked. "Well, one of your best friends," she amended quickly.

"Of course you are!" I answered, wondering why she started this random interrogation.

The pink haired girl let out a breath. "Sometimes I'm not too sure."

"What do you mean?" I was surprised at this sudden confession.

"Friends are supposed to share things with each other Mikan," she explained. "Yet you never tell us anything." I was speechless and Anna took that opportunity to plow on. "I don't know anything about you! You never tell us about your childhood or your family, and I know that it's some mysteriously kept secret because Hotaru warned me and Nonoko not to ask you about it, but I thought that after three years you would tell us something, anything, but I'm still waiting."

"Anna..." I whispered. I had no idea what to say or how to react. It felt like she poured her soul out to me and I didn't have anything to catch it with. I didn't know how to respond to all the information she has given me, from the part of Hotaru warning her about me to how she felt like I didn't treat her like a friend.

It looked like she wasn't done however, "Do you know why I always ask you about your skygazing?" I simply shook my head. "It's because the first time I saw you up on the roof I went to find out what you were doing. You didn't notice me and it was dark but I saw it Mikan," she nearly screamed out. "You were crying!" As if just speaking about the act was too much, there were large glistening globes of tears forming in her eyes.

I dropped all the bags from my hands and rushed to her. She continued sobbing into my shoulder as I cocooned her and softly stroked her hair. "You looked so broken Mikan, and I promised myself that I would do something to help fix you. But I feel like I haven't done anything for you!" her voice was muffled against my clothes, but every word sent fierce stabs into my heart. Anna has always been the happiest of our group. She was rarely sad or let down by situation; always the first to bounce back from any gloom. So to see her this... distressed scared me, and to know that I was the one to cause her this state sent waves of endless guilt over me.

"I'm so sorry Anna," I whispered and her sobs turned to whimpers. "I should have realized what you were thinking, how I was treating you."

"Well you are pretty oblivious," she joked, and I smiled weakly; Anna was already recovering.

"But that's no excuse," I stated. "I should have trusted you more, all of you guys. Well, that's not quite right. I do trust you guys, more than you think I do," I explained. "Even if I don't tell you guys everything, I know that if I want to you guys will be there to listen."

I took a deep breath. "The problem is, I don't trust myself. I'm not ready to open the box just yet. I need more time, or maybe I'm just being a coward, but I know that if I open it now I won't be able to handle whatever is in it." I prayed that Anna understood what I was trying to put into words. "Honestly, I don't remember many things about myself before I was six, but I guess I can tell you the stuff I remember from after that. The good things," I added. "I'll tell all of you guys the truth someday. Please just wait for me," I begged.

I felt Anna hug me tighter in our embrace. "Alright," she breathed out. She pulled away and giggled. "Look at us," she said, wiping some tears that I didn't know formed from my eyes. "We're crying and having a moment in a book store." I had to laugh at the ridiculousness of it as well. At least there was no one in this part of the store to have witnessed us.

I bent down to retrieve our dropped baggage and as I was getting up a book caught my attention. "I found it!" I called, pulling the manga Natsume requested off from the shelf. I paid for and, arm-in-arm, left the store with Anna. We met up with the two others in front of Clash and Bang, the science store, where Nonoko bombarded Anna about the state of her puffy eyes to which she responded, "I was just being an idiot." while Hotaru gave me a knowing look.

We got off the bus at the Academy and split into two to go to our assigned dorms after promising to meet up in the cafeteria for dinner. Hotaru didn't ask about Anna and I didn't tell her because I figured she already knew. She was astute like that.

Hotaru had a room on the ground floor because the labs were located there. It was amazing really, she was only a first year (AN/ a sophomore in the American school system), but she was given a lab usually reserved for seniors. We parted ways and I entered the elevator to the top floor (always the best for the Hyuugas).

I knocked on the door of Natsume's room after dropping off my other bags in my room. I didn't know why, but there was a faint whiff of nervousness inside me. My heart speed increased as I waited for the door to open. The conversation with Anna drifted through my head as I tried to contain my eagerness. As time passed it was obvious that it wasn't, so, fighting the unexplainable disappointment, I used the spare key to open it.

The curtains were shut, casting the room in darkness. Looking around his room I saw that it was sparsely decorated; the only things in the room were just the necessities. It also smelled good, a nice Natsume kind of smell was the only way I can describe it. It wasn't cluttered like how you expect a guy's room to be, but it wasn't extremely clean either - it was just right. I saw some pictures on the TV mantle, but before I could take a closer look I heard a shuffling noise from the bedroom.

Surreptitiously, I tiptoed along the floor and gently opened the bedroom door. There, on top of the covers, sprawled Natsume in a suit. I had forgotten that he had a meeting today - Aeternos are not required to attend to their masters on the weekends. It looked like he barely took off his shoes and loosened his tie before collapsing on the bed.

I walked over to the side of the bed, careful not to make a noise, and peered at his face. It must have been a long meeting; even in his sleep he looked exhausted. There was a stray lock of his hair that had fallen across his face. I leaned in and brushed it aside and was about to pull away when something grabbed the back of my neck.

I screamed and I heard the body below me groan. Bright red orbs peered at me from under lazy hooded lids like they were having trouble adjusting. I noticed that it was Natsume's arm that was looped around my neck and I tried to throw it off me.

"Cat prints?"

I looked at him curiously, wondering if he was still half asleep. Until I saw that from my current position, I'd just given him a clear view down my shirt. I gripped the manga that was still in my hand and slammed it into his face. I heard his growl of pain as I marched away, flush in the face.

_Do you like him?_

Definitely not.

* * *

><p><strong>So how was it? A review would be really helpful! I need some feedback and some ideas as to what you guys might want to see in the story! I also want a hundred reviews, and I have around 90-ish right now. Thank you for all of those reviews by the way! Hope you enjoyed!<strong>

**Knight**


	16. Chapter 16

**Yes, yes, yes. I am horrible at updating. I am extremely sorry about that! I have chronic laziness... But to make up for that, I wrote my longest chapter yet! I hope you'll enjoy! Thanks to everyone that read and reviewed! Special thanks to Mystique0831 for being the 100th reviewers! Of course thanks to all my reviewers who give me the motivation to keep on writing!**

**Hai! Sorede, tanoshinde-kudasai!~ **

* * *

><p>"Is it just me, or do all the girls seem more giggly today?" I whispered to Ruka. I guess I caught him unawares because he jumped and stuttered for a while before resorting to vigorous nodding.<p>

Koko, who abandoned his lunch to watch this scene with a grin on his face, chimed in, "It's because of the Tea Party." I cocked my head to the side to show I didn't understand. He made an extravagant show of head shaking and signing to show that he was disappointed in me. "Mikan, Mikan, Mikan," he cooed. "You're allowed to bring dates to the Tea Party."

For me, that didn't make things any clearer, but I didn't want to be mocked again so I shot another question. "I thought the Tea Party was for meeting your parents, to show how much we've grown and matured from two terms at school? I didn't know it was a dance."

"It technically isn't," Mochu said, forcefully taking a seat between Koko and Anna. "But you know how we only have one dance? The Christmas Ball?" he asked and I nodded my head. "Well girls aren't satisfied with just one ball a year, so they use the Tea Party as another excuse to party."

"Alright, so why are all the girls staring at our table?" I glanced around and almost all the females in the room were looking this way. Some would avert their gaze once I caught them staring, but others continued to unabashedly ogle. And the chattering. The classroom was filled with a constant buzz of whispering and giggling that only so far Jinno had been able to cease momentarily.

Koko suddenly stood up. "It's because of me of course!" he announced in a voice that rivaled Mr. Narumi's theatre flair and puffed out his chest. He clambered up on the desk and he raised his hands to the heavens as he stood above us. "I, the most handsome and eligible hunk on campus, am the center of all these lovely ladies' attention. However, no matter how much I enjoy basking in this soft celestial gaze of femininity, I must state that my heart has already been claimed by another! But, if it is your wish, you may fight for me! Use any tact-" his cries were cut off when a glob of mashed potatoes splattered on his face.

"Get off the table before you fall and break your neck." Hotaru's command echoed in the silent room as she placed down her spoon that a second ago held Anna's blue cheese and walnut mashed potatoes. Her voice seemed to have an awakening effect as chattered slowly picked up again after the awkward interruption. Koko swiftly followed her order and Nonoko leaned across the table to hand him a napkin, all the while holding in her laughter. "Everyone knows that all the girls are stupid over Hyuuga," Hotaru stated.

I looked to my right, where a stoic Natsume sat, absorbed in the new manga that I bought him and seemingly oblivious to the fracas that just occurred, but he gave a grunt to show that he heard.

"Not just Natsume," Yuu spoke up from his seat as he helped his master clean off the potato. "I'm pretty sure Ruka is targeted as well."

I turned to the left where Ruka was sitting. "No, no," he stuttered, his pale face slightly pink. "I'm not as popular as Natsume."

"But you're still number two," stated Hotaru. There was a flash as her camera went off. "His blushing face will sell for a decent amount," she answered when she noticed the questioning stares. This only provoked Ruka's face to become a bright red and he reached over the table to try and confiscate the camera.

"Wait," I called. "If people really want to go to the Tea Party with Natsume and Ruka, why don't they just ask?" I questioned.

Mochu pointed across the room. "They keep them in check," he said. I turned around in my seat to follow his finger. In the far corner I saw a couple of girls that weren't looking at our table, but instead they were glaring at everyone in the room – it was Luna and Sumire.

I rolled my eyes and sat properly on the seat again. "Figures everyone would be scared of them."

"Just watch out for them," Mochu warned. "They like to ambush Natsume when he's alone."

I looked back at the corner again. "You know, I feel sorry that Andrei has to deal with them all the time," I sympathized, eying the huge bulk that sat next to Sumire.

"Maybe that's why his face looks like he's in constant pain," Anna whispered. "I would be too if I had to be surrounded by that much stupidity and vainess all the time." Mochu laughed a little too loudly.

XXX

"I hate summer," I complained as Natusme and I walked back to our dorm.

"Shut up and walk faster," was his reply.

I rolled my eyes and slowed down my pace. I was surprisingly pleased when he slowed his gait as well to match my speed. "What's the point of making it so hot?" I continued my gripe. "I hate sweating," I moaned.

I saw Natsume shrug beside me. "I don't think it's that bad," he said.

"The sweating or the heat?" I asked, casting his a smile.

He replied with a small smirk of his own. "The heat."

"Well that's because you have a crazy body temperature," I stated.

He quirked a brow. "How did you know that?" he asked.

My face, already hot from the heat of the sun, got even hotter, as I flashed back to the scene of when a half asleep Natsume grabbed me. Even in my crazed panicked mind I noticed his arm that was around my neck was unusually warm for someone that spent the whole day in the air conditioned room. But I couldn't tell him that. "Because of your Alice," I offered.

That knowing smirk was still plastered on his face and he opened his mouth to make, what I predicted as, a smart remark when suddenly, he was plowed from the back by a bulldozer with velvety pink hair. "Natsume!" Luna's high pitched voice cried. The sound pierced my ears and Natsume, who got the full blast of the cacophony, winced.

"Luna." Natsume was surprisingly calm, even though a telltale twitch of his eye showed the annoyance that was bubbling heatedly inside him. "To what do I owe this... pleasure?" He forced the last word out between gnashed teeth as if to prevent other, appropriate yet crude, words that could describe Luna's appearance.

"Well," she began feigning shyness. "I've been trying to find an opportunity to talk to you this whole day!" Her slim arms latched on to Natsume's arms. He quickly peeled them off, only for her to come back and hug his arm - pressing herself on it to keep it tightly in place. "I think Sumire noticed what I was going to do, so she stuck close to me, but I finally got rid of her! And I found you alone too!" At this I coughed loudly, drawing her attention.

She gave me a brief glance and sneered. "You don't count," she bluntly told me. I glared at her form that was clutching Natume's forearm and forcing it against her chest. I felt like punching a wall. Luna quickly turned to show her back to me and to block Natsume from me. "Anyway," she continued. "I wanted to ask if you want to go to the Tea Party with me?" she asked cutely, batting her eyes and trailing her finger nail down Natsume's chest.

"There's no way you can say no," she said haughtily when Natsume failed to reply. "We're a perfect match! We're both part of the leading businesses in Japan, and we're both good looking," she stated immodestly. Does she ever hold back, I wonder. "The Hyuuga's and the Koizumi's have been looking to work together for some quite time now. I think us appearing together will give them the initiative to actually put that plan in motion. I'm pretty sure both of our families will be pleased with the match."

I was completely lost. I thought that she came here to ask Natsume to be her date, but now it sounds like she's proposing that they get married. The sour look on Natsume's face showed that he reached the same conclusion.

"Our families may be pleased," Natsume began as he tried again to free himself of Luna's grip. "But I won't be." He took her silence as a cue to continue. "I'm just not interested in you." That statement seemed to work like a physical blow - Luna stepped back quickly with a look of shock painted on her face.

"Why?" she whispered.

Natsume either didn't hear it or chose to ignore her. "Also about the question you asked, I'm sorry to say that I already have a date."

Luna jolted out of her stupor. "Who?" she snapped.

Natsume walked around her and made his way over to me, who's been standing in the same spot since the arrival of Luna. He placed an arm around my waist and pulled me close. "Her," he said.

"What?" Luna and I both screamed at the same time. Natsume pinched my sides, a warning to be quiet. Luna didn't seem to have noticed my outburst since she was too busy staring at Natsume.

"Her? Why her?" she cried, viciously pointing a finger at me.

"She begged me to be her date," he said, I felt blood rushing to my face and an impulse to punch this jerk's face was growing steadily. "I couldn't say no, I would've of felt horrible." Luna's glare of hatred made the sun's heat a refreshing breeze.

"You're going to regret taking Natsume from me," she spat. She then turned a sympathizing face to Natsume, his earlier rejection of her completely forgotten. "I'll save you from that ugly witch." Then with a click of her heels she marched off.

As soon as she turned a corner and disappeared I threw Natsume's arm off of me and slapped his should with all the strength and anger I had. "Ow!" he complained. "What was that for?"

"That's my question?" I screamed. "Who begged you to be my date! You know she's going to go around and tell the whole school the stupid lies you made up!" I was livid, I've never been this embarrassed before.

"Sorry, sorry," he said, sounding not a least bit apologetic. "I couldn't come up with anything else." He looked at my angry face and smirked. "What's the big deal? You get to go to the Tea Party with 'the hottest and the most eligible guy on campus,'" he said the last part sarcastically, to try to get me to calm down with humor, but when it didn't work he let out a big sigh. "You should be at least a little happy you got a date; it's not like anyone else was going to ask you."

I felt my last thread of patience and understanding snap at his last words. My shaking hands balled into fists as I restrained the desire to resort to violence. "I don't need your pity," I growled and I turned and ran before I lost my self control too.

XXX

An earsplitting shriek came out of the mouths of Anna and Nonoko. "You're what!" they screamed simultaneously as I furiously attacked the punching bag that hung in Hotaru's room. After I ran from Natsume, I went straight to the genius inventor's lab. She spent all her free time in the there, so I wasn't surprised when she opened the door - albeit a bit grudgingly. As soon as she saw my face, however, instead of slamming the door shut as she usually does, she silently let me pass, and I made a beeline to the punching bag that Hotaru uses to test her robots.

I worked on the bag for a good fifteen minutes when there was a knock on the door and Anna and Nonoko - summoned by Hotaru - came in. I told them what transpired between Natsume and me between angry punches, which led to the two girls screaming and a quirked brow from Hotaru.

Slightly more calm now, or because of my raw blistering hands, I abandoned the bag and plopped down on the ground. "Why do these things always happen to me?" I cradled my head in my hands. Something cold pressed against my face. I looked up and saw Hotaru holding out a water bottle, I took it and thanked her.

"Can you believe it?" Nonoko gushed. "Mikan is going to the Tea Party with Natsume!"

"That's awesome and everything, but he was pretty rude about it," Anna frowned. "I mean, you can't tell a person that you're taking them as a date because you feel sorry for them."

This sobered Nonoko. "That's true. I wonder why he did that, he doesn't seem like the type."

"That's just how he is," Hotaru said. "He probably didn't know why he picked you as a date. He probably panicked and said those things to save himself from embarrassment."

I downed the water and groaned, flipping onto my back. "I actually figured as much. He does have a big ego." I studied the patterns on the ceiling. "I don't know why I got so mad at that time, I mean I already know that Natsume isn't an insensitive cruel jerk that I thought him to be before. If I actually thought about it a little, I should have realized that he was just trying to protect his pride," I grumbled, not making eye contact with anyone.

"Maybe you were mad because he only asked you cause he had no choice?" Anna timidly questioned. I looked at her questioningly and she glanced away.

"Yea, maybe the thought that you were his last choice in case of emergencies got you mad," Nonoko added.

I propped myself up on my elbows. "What are you guys trying to say?" I asked suspiciously, my eyes narrowed. The two girls suddenly took interest in the floor. I looked at Hotaru, who gave me a small smirk and a shrug. I was tired, so I decided not to pursue the subject. "Whatever," I said. "My grandpa always said I attract trouble."

"Oh, that's right!" Anna cried, looking relieved at the change of topic. "What was your grandpa like?" Everyone leaned forward closer to me, even Hotaru - it's no surprise since I've never discussed anything about my life before.

I took a deep breath and looked at the eager faces of my friends. "He was bald," I simply said. "But if I said that to his face he would yell and smack me." Anna giggled and I followed, remembering how I would get chased around the traditional Japanese style house by an old man with a slipper in his hand.

Anna scooted closer next to me and took my hand. I took strength from her warmth and opened my mouth to tell them all the memories I knew of my life with the first family that I have known. I told them about the first town festival that my grandpa took me to, of how we celebrated my birthday in the snow, of how he held me at night when I had a nightmare, of how he helped me overcome my , explainable, fear of dogs and how they were going to attack me. By the time I finished, everyone had gathered around me - Nonoko held my other hand while Hotaru's warm back was pressed against mine. I was the luckiest person alive to have friends like this.

"So what happened to him?" Anna whispered after I stopped talking.

"He passed away when I was ten. I didn't have anybody else to go to so I took to the streets." I felt both of my hand being gently squeezed. "I met Hotaru's dad a year later and he took me in." I smiled at the memory.

I glanced at the clock and jumped. "It's already late! I'm gonna go back to my room now." Everyone started to stand up. "I have to apologize to Natsume too." Anna and Nonoko smiled when I said that.

"Shouldn't he be begging for your forgiveness," Hotaru asked.

I giggled. "Maybe," I offered. Waving, I exited the room and breathed in the cool summer air. I only had a moment to appreciate the full moon that was set in the sky before I ran into the building and into the elevator. I was surprised when a mop of green hair greeted me there. "Seaweed... I mean Sumire," I called surprised.

She gave a grunt as the doors closed on the shaft. I noticed that Andrei wasn't with her. "I heard that you begged Natsume to take you as his date?" she sneered.

I rolled my eyes, of course she would know already. But I brushed my annoyance aside and replied cheerily, "Yup!"

Sumire seemed a little surprised at my response. "I didn't think you were the type to do that." She gave me an appraising glance. "You seem... Stronger than that. More independent."

"Oh, thanks," I replied sincerely, completely surprised by the compliment.

"But," she continued on, seemingly unaware that I've said anything. "I was right about one thing. You are an idiot."

"What?" I asked, caught off guard by the sudden turn in the mood.

She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall of the shaft. "I told you not to mess with Luna. Now she's going to make you pay the price." The elevator chimed and the doors slid open to reveal Andrei forms standing behind it.

"You disappeared," he said gruffly.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Sumire waved him off. Andrei noticed me and gave a slight bow, which I returned. Sumire turned around as the doors were closing. "I'll warn you again. Be careful."

I contemplated on her words as the elevator rose again. I was so immersed in my thoughts of what Luna would do to get her revenge that I almost didn't notice a figure sitting before my door. I paused and looked at the ground. "Natsume?" I called as he stood up. "What are yo-"

"I'm sorry," he cut me off. "Look I didn't mean what I said. It was stupid and rude, I know. I didn't know what I was thinking. I shouldn't have said what I sa-" He stopped his rambling when he noticed that I was laughing. "What's so funny?" he asked a little angrily.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I gasped, tears of mirth in my eyes. "It's just that you took the words right out of my mouth!" I didn't know why that made me laugh, but just the thought that he was thinking along the same lines as I made me somewhat happy.

"You were going to apologize?" he asked incredulously. I nodded my head. "Are you an idiot?"

"According to Sumire, I am," I replied.

He glared at me. "Why would you need to apologize? You didn't do anything wrong! You had every right to be angry!" he yelled.

I shook my head. "I might have," I said. "But I over reacted. As your Aeterna, I should have realized what you were trying to do. I shouldn't have been that livid."

"'What I was trying to do'? What do you mean?"

I laughed again. "You probably didn't think things through when you told Luna that you were taking me to the dance right? You panic and didn't want to be embarrassed right?"

I saw a faint blush creep up on Natsume's face and I basked in the victorious feeling that it produced in me. "I don't know what you're trying to say Polka," he mumbled.

"Honestly, you such a little kid!" I cried, hilarity taking control of me again.

"Shut up," he said. I felt as if the Gods blessed me because at that moment Natsume Hyuuga smiled. An honest to goodness, earth shattering smile. Something that I didn't think was possible. But as soon as it appeared, it was gone, replaced by a small smirk. "I'll explain to everyone the true tomorrow. I mean, Sumire must have already given you trouble right?"

I waved off his offer. "It's fine," I assured. "I'm just glad you relied on me."

He rolled his eyes. "You are my Aeterna. You'd be pretty useless if I couldn't use you." I stuck my tongue out at him - which he ignored. "So you're ok with being my date?"

"Sure," I replied. "Like you said, I should feel like that I get to go with the most sought after male in the school. Who knows, it may even be fun!"

"Thanks," he said, and he looked like he meant it.

"No problem!" I gave him a smile. "Anyway, it's pretty late, and we have classes tomorrow, so I'm gonna turn in."

Natsume nodded. "Alright, night."

I waved and entered my room. "Oh yea," I called as I was shutting the door. "Make sure you buy a silver tie." With that I closed the door on Natsume's questioning face.

* * *

><p><strong>So for this chapter I wasn't really sure if I captured the emotions right. Did it seem out of character? Was it too much? I would appreciate any feed back! Thanks for reading!<strong>

**Knight**


	17. Chapter 17

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while! I've been busy with college applications and all those other excuses that you guys probably don't want to hear. So, I'm back with the longest chapter to date! I reread my story to see where I left it off so hopefully that chapter still goes with the flow. I'm really sorry for those that told me to update sooner, I hope you guys are or will still read my story! I really appreciate those that have stuck through my story, not matter how late I update.**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

><p>"Ouch!" I screamed for the umpteenth time. "Anna, I would like to have all of my hair intact with my head when the night is done." I informed the vicious hair dresser behind me.<p>

"Oh stop complaining," Anna snapped, pulling a comb through my hair. "Beauty comes at the price of pain." The teeth of the comb snagged my hair again, and my next cry of pain got garbled in my throat when Nonoko roughly grabbed my jaw and began painting my lips.

An hour ago, the three girls - Anna, Nonoko, and Hotaru - barged into my room unannounced and strapped me down to a chair, where they proceeded to moisturize my face and pluck at my facial hairs; all to prepare me for tonight's event - the Tea Party. I really didn't understand the appeals of being a girl. It just seemed like everything involved pain and tears. My eyes were still watery from the time Hotaru's tweezers attacked my eyebrows.

I protested loudly as a hair pin stabbed my head. "Hey, I'm pretty sure that just drew blood!" I yelled. Anna replied with a few more pricks to the head. I resisted the urge to scratch my head. "Don't you guys have to get ready too?" I asked, glancing at the clock - the Tea Party was an hour away.

"Don't worry," Nonoko assured, dashing my hopes of escaping this torture. "There's plenty time for us to get ready. Unlike you, we actually know how to dress up." I glared at her insult. She gave me an innocent smile.

"Be grateful that we're helping you and not letting you embarrass yourself, and us." Hotaru stated. "The party will contain high class families; they would have eaten you alive if you came in there without a smudge of makeup." I imagined a room full of Lunas and Sumires, and I shuddered at the thought. Hotaru walked up behind me where I could see her reflected in the mirror behind me. She held up her hands. "Which one?" she commanded. From her fingers dangled two necklaces. Both chains were silver; one was grafted with tiny diamonds, while a medium sized ruby hung from the other.

"The right one," I instinctively said.

Hotaru smiled and held up the ruby piece. "Good choice." She laid it on the table along with its matching earrings. "Did you tell him about the tie?" she directed at me.

I nodded my head, meeting her eyes through the mirror. "I told him, I don't know if he actually got one."

"He did," she replied confidently with a small smile.

I wanted to know why she was so certain, but Nonoko's squeal prevented me. "Done!" she said, flourishing her hands.

"You look so beautiful Mikan!" Anna cried. She pushed me towards the vanity and I found that it was hard to argue with her. The face reflected in the mirror was a stranger to me. My usual pale skin was glowing, with a little bit of blush on my cheeks, the dark make up around my eyes accentuated the hazel color of my eyes, and my red lips were of the perfect shade - enough brightness to stand out, but not too much as to take away from the other features of my face. My orange hair was styled up in an intricate way. It was teased and curled on top of my head, with shining faux pearls decorating it.

I was, quite honestly, stunning.

I reached up to touch my face - to confirm whether this was actually mine or not - only to have my hand slapped away by Nonoko. "Don't touch," she ordered, "or I'll chop off your fingers."

"Yes ma'am," I replied. I beamed at my friends. "Thank you guys so much! There was no way I could have done this myself."

"Anything for you Mikan! We're always happy to help!" Anna chimed.

Hotaru gave me an appraising glance. "Your grandpa would have been proud if he saw you. He raised a beautiful granddaughter."

Her words brought tears to my eyes, but I held them back - I valued my fingers. Instead I whispered, "Thanks."

Nonoko gave me a pat on the back. "Well, we got to get ready too, so we'll be going."

"I wish I could see the face Natsume will make when he sees you!" squealed Anna. "Make you describe it to us later." She winked and walked to the door with the others. "Don't mess up your makeup and hair!" she called behind her as she left.

As the door clicked shut, I made my way over to the full length mirror that hung on my wall and admired my face. I was still speechless at how much the girls were able to change me; who knew that I could ever look like this? I still had plenty of time, but not knowing what else to do; I pulled the dress hanging on the closet off its hanger. I unwrapped the robe I had on and slipped in the smooth material. Then I grabbed the jewelry Hotaru left me and placed them on.

I walked back to the mirror to view myself. My dress was a silver floor length dress made out of light shimmering fabric that flowed down my form. There was a slit on one side that reached up to the middle of my thigh, creating a curtain effect around my legs. The bright red of the gems complimented the lustrous color of my dress.

I gazed in to the eyes reflected in the mirror. I endured weeks of snide remarks and pretty attacks from jealous girls for this one night - all for Natsume. His name brought funny jittery sensation in my stomach. I put a hand to it, as if to calm them down. I knew what my friends were trying to label this feeling as; but I wasn't going to take the bait.

I shook my head to try to dispel the thoughts of my crimson eyed master and tried to bring forth my Aeterna sensibilities; because tonight was another duty like any other - nothing more. All my efforts crashed, however, when the bell rang. I looked at the clock and was startled to see that forty five minutes had gone by. Cursing my new found vanity, I strapped on my high heels and rushed to the door.

I placed my palms on the cold wood and took a deep breath to steady my beating heart. I rearranged my dress to make sure I looked presentable and waited a moment more before opening the door.

There was a click and a flash went off that blinded me for a second. I squinted and looked above me, and saw a small camera attached to the door frame above me. I sighed - I should have known Hotaru would pull something like this. I glanced back down to apologize to my guest, when I saw that it was Natsume, with a look of surprise etched on his face.

I don't think he even noticed the flash. I waved a hand in front of his face. "Natsume?" I called. My voice seemed to snap him back out of whatever trance he was in and he blinked rapidly, like he was trying to get his view into focus.

He pulled at his collar while clearing his throat. "You look decent," he gruffly said.

I scoffed. Knowing him, that was probably the best compliment I could get out of him. "Thanks, you don't look half bad yourself," I remarked, observing him from head to toe. "Especially with that tie." I smirked.

Natsume glanced down at his chest at the silver tie that decorated his neck; proving once again that Hotaru was always right. My "date" was wearing a classic black suit vest with a white button down collar shirt that fitted his form too nicely. I wondered if it was illegal to look this good. I knew that I was going to be battling a lot of jealous girls tonight.

"Like what you see?" My gaze traveled back to his face, where a smirk was plastered.

I rolled my eyes. "And here I was thinking that your ego looked a little smaller today."

His crimson eyes still sparkled with mirth as he turned away. "Let's get going before we're late," he called as he made his way to the elevator.

"Wait!" I cried, rushing back into my room. I strapped on silver shoes that matched the tone of my dress and chased after Natsume. He was already waiting in the elevator when I locked my room. I had a hard time speeding down the hall as I had never worn anything with a heel high than my penny loafers. I stumbled in to the shaft, wincing in pain, as Natsume watched with an amused expression, pushing the close button when I got all of myself in.

"It's not funny," I seethed.

He held his hands up in defense. "I didn't say anything," he replied innocently. Instead of arguing, I grabbed his tie. "What are you doing?" he growled and tried to push my hands away.

"It was crooked," I answered. With a huff, Natsume stopped trying to fight me and let me fix his tie. In the small space of the elevator, it was hard not in inhale his scent and it made me dizzy – in a good way. I wondered what cologne he used and how they were able to bottle spice and freshness into one scent. I seriously considered buying the cologne to spay all over my room until I realized how disturbing that picture was.

I realized that I was zoned out and I made making a mess of his tie. I shook my head and tried to refocus at the task in hand, but it was hard, particularly because I kept getting side tracked my Natsume's smell. But, finally I was able to fix it; I slapped his chest. "There! Perfect!" I claimed as I admired my work.

"Good," he said. "We've been in the elevator for three minutes." I turned around and saw that the shaft doors were open and that there were people waiting for us to get off so they could go up. I blushed, knowing that they saw me getting intoxicated by Natsume's smell.

"Sorry," I mumbled to the crowd and quickly got off. A group of middle school girls sent me a glare, but it was weakened by their appreciation of my looks.

Natsume led the way to the Ceremony Hall where the Tea Party was taking place. It was only a ten minute walk from the Special Star dorms, but because of the episode in the elevator, we were slightly late. Natsume didn't seem to mind though as he was walking at a leisurely pace. Or that may have been because of my inability to walk straight.

Walking on a brick road with stilettos was a life endangering task. The heels kept getting caught in the crevices between the bricks. I was afraid that either my shoes or my skull would be broken before we reached the party. I cried out as I tripped once again, my balance dangerously off scale. I closed my eyes, waiting for the impact of the ground, but instead I felt a warm arm circling my waist.

I looked at Natsume as he helped my stand upright. "I don't want to bring an unconscious and bloodied date, Polka," he stated.

"Sorry," I squeaked, still trying to recover from my near fatal experience. I quickly let go of Natsume's arm that I was holding to stabilize myself with before he got mad and blamed me for cooties, but he didn't let me as he held on to my hand. I blushed and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Just hold on to my arm, so you don't kill yourself." He threaded my arm through his and I tried not to throw up all the butterflies that were suddenly violently beating around in my gut. It was the first time I've been this close to a boy of my own age - the only hand of the opposite gender I've held was my grandpa's.

Suddenly, I was hit with a blast of clarity. The unexplainable feelings that I've been feeling around Natsume was now explainable: it was just nerves. I had let Anna's suggestion affect me and was now looking deep into things that didn't exist. I was just unaccustomed to my new situation; once I get used to Natsume's presence, these confusing jumble of emotion will disappear.

With that realization, walking arm in arm with Natsume wasn't as nerve-wreaking as it was a few moments ago – it almost felt normal. Well as normal as walking arm in arm with the "hottest guy in campus", whom many envied and admired, who was also someone that you used to hate, but now have an almost friendship like relationship with. Completely normal.

We made pretty good distance while I was musing and soon the faint sound of music and conversation reached our ears. The Ceremony Hall came into view and we entered its doors. As I had thought, we were late. We missed the speeches by the three principals and the Tea Party was in full swing. I tried looking around the crowd for my friends, but there were too many people dancing and socializing for me to make out any familiar faces.

I stumbled a little as Natsume pulled me to the left. I increased my pace to match his, and to my surprise saw that we were making our way to Grandfather Hyuuga. He saw us coming and stared at our interlinked arms, but didn't comment on it. I pulled away from Natsume when we got closer and gave Nobuko a hug. "Congratulations on getting discharged!" I said cheerfully. Nobuki seemed a little too surprised to return my embrace, but he gave me a grateful smile when I backed off.

"Thank you," he said. He then proceeded to observe me. "You look very beautiful," he complimented, making me blush. For some reason, I felt as if the older Hyuuga has become nicer to me with every visit I made to the hospital with Natsume. The hard mean façade that he has shown me from our first meeting seemed to have melted away to something more like acceptance.

"You should be resting." I looked over and saw a scowl on Natsume's face.

Nobuki shook his cane (an item that the doctors recommended him to buy) at him. "Now, now, Natsume," he chastised. "Attending social gatherings is a must, not matter what condition you're in. These kinds of events are teeming with the possibilities of meeting new people and in consequence making new connections." He continued the lecture. "Who knows what kind of opportunities I could have missed out if I had chosen not to attend tonight?"

"It's because you keep pushing yourself that you ended up in the hospital in the first place," Natsume muttered.

Nobuki sighed. "You'll understand what I mean once you take over the company," he said. Natsume looked completely dissatisfied with that answer, but he didn't get the chance to express it. "Ah, Jinno –sensei! How are you?" I looked over my shoulder and saw my least favorite teacher heading my way. The two men exchanged pleasantries while I marveled at my first sight of Jinno in a suit. I knew that the Jinno in front of me was the teacher I had when I was a three star. The twins were identical, but over the days, I noticed that there were slight differences between the two; the Jinno in front of me had eyebrows with a higher arch than his brother.

I tugged on Natsume's sleeve, so I could escape before Jinno let it slip about the time I slapped Natsume, but as usual, luck wasn't on my side. "I see that you've decided to attend the Party this year," Jinno remarked, turning his attention towards me.

I laughed nervously and fiddled with the fabric of my dress. "Yes, I supposed that after three years, I should attend it at least once."

He nodded in agreement. "I deduce that your parents are here as well then?" He looked at me with a devious glint in his eye. "I would like to speak with them about you recent behavior." He glanced at Nobuki and Natsume who were listening to our exchange. "With the Hyuugas too."

"Oh," I muttered. I cursed in my head. Of course Jinno would attack me with the biggest reason of why I haven't attended the Tea Party before and tack it with some extra horribleness.

"Well?" Jinno prompted, impatient with my lack of response.

I felt three pairs of eyes on me as they waited for my response. I took a deep breath; they were bound to find out sometime. "I don't have any." I instantly felt the atmosphere change and hated it. A look of guilt flashed across Jinno's face. I wasn't mad at him – the Academy housed a lot of wizards who were abandoned here by their parents because of their supernatural powers, so the topic of family was scarcely discussed. But what I did get mad for was the look of pity that replaced his features.

I turned on my heel and managing to salvage a small piece of mannerism, I whispered, "Excuse me," before I dismissed myself from the group. I hated awkward situations, and most of all, I hate sympathy; especially if I didn't deserve it. People automatically jump to the conclusion that I'm suffering, or that I'm sad, when in reality I'm neither – I feel nothing. I have no recollection of having parents, and all my grandpa ever told me was that they became stars; always watching over me. So, I've never felt mournful about my lack of parents because I never had them to begin with. I never have felt the feeling of losing them. In a way I hated that too; not knowing where you come from, not knowing where you belong – those were the problems that have plagued me for as long as I could remember.

I saw a lot of stares and glances directed my way, but I was too caught up in my musings to give them a second thought. I finally saw my friends at the buffet table. Anna and Nonoko were helping Hotaru load crab roe onto her plate. "Hey guys," I called.

They stopped in their task and looked up at my voice. "There you are!" Anna said. "I thought you played hooky."

"Yea." Nonoko agreed. "Hotaru was about to go to your room with her Baka Gun." I looked at said evil inventor's hand and indeed saw the hoof shaped glove.

Hotaru looked up from her pile of food and noticed my face. "What's wrong?" she asked, letting a rare emotion of concern slip through her façade.

I didn't know how my face looked like, but I waved her concern away. "It's nothing," I assured her. "I just got into a little complication with Jinno Number One." The other two girls nodded their head in understanding, while Hotaru's eyes seemed to accuse me of holding something back from her.

Thankfully, Koko materialized to my side and attacked me a bear hug. "Mikan, you look so hot!" he told me as he continued to squeeze the life out of me.

"Thanks!" I gasped, trying to feebly push him away. He finally seemed to realize what he was doing and let go quickly, offering me an apology. Yuu, Mochu, and Ruka joined our group and we spent a minute complimenting each other's attire.

"Where's Natsume?" Ruka asked me.

"Shoot," I cursed, just realizing the fact that I left Natsume and proceeded to forget all about him. "I think he's with his family." I explained to Ruka.

Suddenly, there was a high pitch voice screaming my name. "Sakura-san!" A jumble of red jumped on me, knocking me off balance. Thankfully, Ruka was there to catch my fall. I looked down in my arms and saw Aoi clinging to me in a single strap ruby dress that matched her eyes.

"You need to be more careful, Aoi," Ruka chastised and Aoi got off of me, grinning sheepishly.

"Sorry Sakura-san," she said. "I just get too excited sometimes."

I laughed. "That's alright Aoi," I said, thanking whatever powers that was at work that was preventing me from getting a twisted ankle. "Oh," I added. "Just call me Mikan." Aoi grinned widely as I introduced her to my friends (the boys already knew her of course).

We were having some casual conversation until Aoi seemed to remember something. "That's right!" she cried. "Mikan, do you know where my brother is? Daddy and I have been looking for him and Grandfather all night." I told her the same thing I told Ruka and pointed her in the general direction of where I saw them last. She bowed and as quick as she came, she was gone; melting in to the crowd.

"She's so cheerful and energetic that it's hard to believe that she's Natsume's sister," Nonoko commented and I agreed wholeheartedly.

Hotaru lifted her head from her roe and pointed behind me. "My parents," she stated. I turned so fast that I got a whiplash, only to be caught in another bone crushing hug.

"Mikan!" Kenji Imai laughed as stepped back and looked at me.

"You look wonderful!" Hotaru's mother, Yura, complimented. Both of Hotaru's parents had rich dark hair, without the tint of purple that Hotaru had; they didn't have Hotaru's purple eyes either. Both of these attributes resulted from "magical tint"; wizards with a lot of power usually have some physical aspects that are affected by their magic – like my orange hair or the Hyuugas' eyes.

I gave Yura a warm hug. "How are you guys?" I asked. "I missed you so much."

Yura laughed. "We're doing great and we missed you girls too!"

"The house is a little too quiet without Mikan breaking everything now," Kenji added. I protested as the group laughed loudly. "You only stayed with us for one winter, but I swear we almost had to buy a new house with the amount of damage you wrought."

"I'm not as clumsy as I was three years ago," I grumbled as another round of laughter went around. Koko was laughing especially loudly, mostly because he could see the memories of those incidents going through the Imais' minds. Hopefully they weren't thinking of the time with the garden sprinkler.

Kenji gave me a pat on the back. "I sure hope not," he said. "The main reason you kept breaking things is because you couldn't control your power, it a good thing we found you." He shuddered. "Imagine an untrained wizard like you loose in Tokyo; it's worse than Godzilla." I punched him on the arm hard enough for it to hurt and Kenji yelped. "Alright, alright," he soothed, "I better leave before Mikan chops off my head."

Yura laughed gently. "It was nice seeing you again," she said. "Make sure you visit us again sometime. Even though we've only known each other for a short time, I consider you like my own daughter." She leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Remember that you're not alone," she whispered, cradling my head with her hand.

"Thank you," I replied. I gave each another hug and after they said their goodbyes to Hotaru, they left; weaving their way through the crowd.

"Wow Hotaru's parents are pretty cool," Mochu said.

"Yea, they're really great," I sighed fondly. "I loved the time I spent with them; it's too bad that the Academy won't let me visit them."

"So you've known Hotaru's family for a while?" Yuu asked.

"Not exactly," I said. "I've only truly known Hotaru's parents for the few weeks that I've stayed with them. It was winter break during that time, so Hotaru was home for business reasons. If she wasn't I'm not sure if we would be friends right now." Hotaru hummed in agreement; her mouth was too full of food. "Then I got enrolled in Alice Academy and started middle school here."

"So you came to the Academy during middle school?" Yuu asked with a confused expression on his face. It was understandable, since a student transferring after elementary was rare.

Ruka also decided to join the conversation. "What did Mr. Imai mean when he said he 'found' you?" I saw where these questions were leading and I prepared myself to bluff myself out of this situation, but Hotaru saved me the trouble.

"Mochu," Hotaru barked. "Are you just going to stare at Anna, or are you going to ask her to dance?" Anna, who was talking with Koko (which thankfully means he wasn't reading my or Hotaru's mind just now), turned and looked over at Mochu who had turned to the color of beet. He stuttered some nonsensical words until he finally managed to force the question out. Anna accepted his invitation; her face slightly pink. She took his hand and they made their way to the dance floor with our whistles and cheers chasing behind them.

I smiled at the couple on the dance floor as Hotaru came up to me. I whispered my appreciation for her help and she simply rolled her eyes. "It's not bad to talk about your past," she said.

I sighed. "I know," I replied, "but how can I talk about it if I don't even remember my past?" Hotaru didn't answer.

There was a cough behind me. "I know you're Natsume's date," Ruka began, reminding me once again, that I forgot about my master, "but before he gets back, would you like to dance with me?" His eyes were steadily directed at me and I tried to mask my surprised expression. I wasn't sure what to do, but Hotaru answered that question for me by pushing me forward, causing me to grab on to Ruka's arm to prevent myself from falling.

I looked up at Ruka's startled face. "Su-Sure," I stuttered, and my response caused his blue eyes to sparkle. As he led me to the dance floor, I looked back at Hotaru for help, but she ignored me and instead opted to snapping pictures of us.

I rolled my eyes – she had a serious addiction to blackmailing.

* * *

><p><strong>So I hope my writing skill hasn't gone down from all those months that I haven't written. I would really appreciate reviews and any writing tips. I feel as if I rush through some parts too fast, and it would be great if you guys could give me pointers on how to fix that. I hope you liked it!<strong>

**Knight**


	18. Chapter 18

**Guess what? This chapter is 5,462 words long! A new record for me! I reread this chapter about 5 times, so hopefully there's less grammar mistakes than there usually is. As some might have noticed, I changed my username. I made my old Midknight Kat one when I was in middle school and I never really liked it, so Urban Silver is the username that I am going to stick with from now on. I also use this username for the online community (games and forum and whatnot), so if you see this name, it might be me!**

**I added a Natsume x Mikan moment in here, but I'm not sure if I did such a good job, so read on and let me know what you guys though about the chapter in the reviews! Hope you enjoy! **

* * *

><p>Although it was my first time dancing, Ruka was such a good lead that I only stepped on his foot three times. As I was spinning with Ruka, I looked around the room for Natsume. I felt kind of bad that I left him and that I was now having fun without him.<p>

We passed Nonoko and Yuu, who had paired up and joined us on the dance floor, and caught the familiar tuff of raven hair as Nonoko's ivory dress fluttered away. Coincidentally, the song ended at the same time, so I was able to excuse myself from Ruka as soon as we finished clapping for the musicians.

Natsume was eyeing me with an intense look as I made my way over to him that made me think that he was indeed mad. "I found you," I sang jokingly. I gave him a smile that he didn't return; not that he did in regular situations.

He gave me a look. "Didn't look like you were looking for me that hard," he remarked.

"Sorry," I said quickly before he burned the hair Anna worked so hard to put up. "I just got carried away by the flow." I felt a presence behind my shoulder – it was Ruka.

"It's my fault Natsume," Ruka explained. "I asked her to dance."

Natsume's eyes hardened a little, but he sighed. "It's not like I'm mad or anything," he grumbled. "She's my partner, not my slave; she can do whatever she wants." I wasn't sure what to feel about towards that comment – the good thing is that he called me his partner, but the way he said it didn't really make it sound like a positive thing.

I felt Ruka's rumbling laugh. "Your partner? I've never heard you call any of your Aeterna that." Ruka noted. Natsume didn't reply and Ruka laughed again. "Fine, fine," Ruka said. He gently pushed me forward. "Why don't you dance with her?"

"Wait. What?" I said, dumbfounded and at a loss of how Ruka came up with this conclusion. The image of me dancing with Natsume just didn't seem to make sense in my brain.

The look on Natsume's face seemed to be agreeing with me. "No thanks," he said snidely.

"Come on, don't be shy." Ruka teased. Natsume just sent him a blank look. "Don't be so difficult. She is your date; it would be a waste if she got all dressed up for you and all you did was to reject her."

I was going to protest, but Natsume suddenly growled and grabbed my hand. "Fine," he said and pulled me away and to the dance floor. I was still speechless was we prepared ourselves for the start of the song; my body moving on auto. I could hear the whispers from the people around me. The whispers were there when I was dancing with Ruka, but now they were louder – I even saw some parents talking amongst themselves while watching us.

Natsume placed his hand on my waist and I jumped. He arched a brow at my reaction and I felt my face warming up. I made myself grab his hand to redeem myself and the song started. It was a slow song, for which I was thankful for since that means that I would probably make fewer mistakes. Although I began to think that I would have been just fine with any song as Natsume proved himself to be an able dance partner. He made sure that it was easy for me to know where to place my foot each time and followed the beat of the music perfectly.

While our dancing was perfect, the atmosphere between us was anything but. There was a quiet tension between us and I felt awkward. "You weren't like this with Ruka," Natsume remarked. I laughed nervously, but made no comment. "You don't want to dance with me," he stated after my lack of answer.

I started. "No! No!" I protested. "It's not that."

"Then what is it?" he asked.

"It's just…" I trailed off, not sure how to answer. With Ruka it was easy to dance with. We had a conversation going and we were having fun; but with Natsume it was different. Being with Natsume was intense. I didn't know what to say or what to do – he was so close to me that it was hard to think. My heart was going on overdrive and my face was in the constant blush mode. I started again. "It's just that you…" I closed my mouth again, still at a loss of words.

Natsume sighed. "I'll let you go back to Ruka." He made a move to let go of me, but then a couple bumped into us, sending me flying towards him. Natsume growled and glared at the retreating figures, but I was too distracted by how my body was pressed against his. I think he realized it too because his eyes flew towards mine and we stared at each other in silence.

My whole body felt like it was on fire, but I didn't want to move. My breath was coming in short gasps and I wondered if Natsume could hear the loudness of my beating heart. Natsume himself made no move to put distance between ourselves, so we were frozen in the middle of the floor. "Natsume," I whispered, but he made no recognition of my voice. Instead, he got closer, if that was possible, until our foreheads almost touched. I could feel his breath fanning my face and I inhaled his intoxicating scent.

His face was so close now that my eyes went cross-eyed trying to look at I could focus on now were his lips. I started to panic from the proximity and tried to push him away, but to no avail. "Natsume, what are you doing?" I whispered.

He seemed to have heard me this time and he gazed steadily into my eyes. "I don't know," he replied. His answer sent a surge of panic, nerves, and excitement through my system. I could feel the ghost of his lips on mine now and I resisted the urge to lick my lips; knowing that he was that close. I didn't know what he was doing – I didn't know what I was doing – and I didn't know what I was hoping, but I didn't have to worry anymore as Yuu ran up to us out of breath; breaking the spell that was cast between us.

"Natsume," Yuu panted, oblivious to our position. We quickly jumped apart and I tried to collect my breath. I didn't know how to process what had just happened, so for now I just focused on trying to get my heart to beat at a normal pace.

"What is it?" Natsume's voice was gruff and he had to clear his throat. I could tell that he was avoiding my eyes and that sent a pang of pain through my chest.

Yuu's eyes were wide and he looked frightened. His expression sobered me and I began to worry that something was wrong. "What happened Yuu?" I asked.

"It's your sister Natsume." Yuu paused to take another deep breath, making me wonder where he ran from. "It's Aoi, she's missing." His words made my blood run cold and I instantly turned to Natsume to gage his reaction. Natsume held his composure, but I knew him enough now – the slightly wider eyes, the hard set of his mouth - to recognize that he was in shock.

I realized that he wouldn't be able to speak, so I asked the questions for him. "Missing? What do you mean she's missing?" I asked; people just didn't go "missing" in Alice Academy – it was unheard of. Sure, some students disappeared for a while – like in a dimensional vortex or a mishap with an invisibility potion – but the teachers knew where they were. The word "missing" implied that they didn't know where Aoi is or what happened to her.

"We don't know," Yuu said in a wavering voice, confirming my fears. "Someone heard a scream from the Hanahime Garden and now we can't find her anywhere."

I took this information in and I saw that having some facts helped calm Natsume slightly as well. "So who reported the scream?" I asked.

It turned out to be none other than Luna Koizumi, I found out, as we made our way over to the Gardens. I could hear her talking to the Fukutai, who were like the Alice Police Force, before I could see her and I rolled my eyes, knowing that she was the last person anyone wanted to be dealing with in this situation. Or, on second thought, in any situation.

We made it to the clearing where everyone was gathered and Natsume headed straight to his family. The two elder Hyuugas were comforting each other and they both looked relieved when Natsume arrived. "What happened?" Natsume asked gruffly.

"We don't know," Takashi said. "Apparently, Koizumi-san and Aoi were having a chat and Koizumi-san left first. That was when she heard the scream. When she ran back, Aoi was gone."

My face scrunched at that: what were Luna and Aoi doing together? As if called, the girl in question walked over to us. "Oh Natsume, I'm so sorry!" she cried, tears running down her face in a way that didn't make her makeup run. She grabbed on to his arm, not letting go even when Natsume tried to pull away.

"It's ok Koizumi-san, it is in no way your fault," Takashi assured. While there was no evidence to prove otherwise, I couldn't get rid of the notion that she was suspicious somehow. It might just be the way her crying seemed fake, or maybe the sight of Luna displaying an emotion besides contempt was just too foreign to me.

"What were you guys doing in the garden?" I asked.

Luna blinked at me like she had just noticed my existence. "Oh, well, I already told the Fukutai everything, so I don't think I need to tell you." She replied snottily. I noticed that her tears were already dried off and she doesn't look like the devastated damsel that she looked like a minute ago.

Natsume growled. "Answer her."

Luna smiled charmingly. "Well, it's really embarrassing." She began, with a face that didn't look like she was embarrassed at all. "I wanted to ask her what kind of birthday present Natsume would like, so I would have plenty of time to look for the perfect gift." She looked up at him, expecting some kind of praise or a smile, but was met with a blank stare instead. It looked like he wanted to throw her off of him and I wondered why he didn't, until I remembered Luna mentioning the fact that the Hyuuga's and Koizumi's were trying to work out a business deal.

Nobuki offered her a small smile. "That's really sweet Koizumi-san," he complemented.

Luna blushed, which I knew was faked because there was no way that she could be modest. "Oh, it's nothing really. I would do anything for my friend." Luna was sucking up big time, and the sad part is, it was working pretty well. Nobuki looked satisfied at the arrangement, while Takashi smiled. Natsume, thankfully, looked like he was going to burn something.

I tried to maneuver the conversation back to the matter at hand. "If you just wanted to know what Natsume liked, why did you have to bring her all the way to the Garden?" While the Hanahime Garden was relatively close to the Ceremony Hall, I didn't understand why they had bothered to come here in the first place. The Garden belonged to and surrounded the domain of the Middle School Principal. She was notorious for her love of her garden, and punished anyone who trespassed – especially boys.

"Well, I wanted to protect Natsume's privacy, of course," she said in her faux sweet voice. "Imagine if a girl were to overhear our conversation, then everyone would know and would bombard Natsume with the same gifts to try to get his attention." She sighed and placed a hand over her heart. "Girls can get a little carried away – especially if it has to do with Natsume." If I didn't know her so well, I think I would have fallen for her little charade as well. She was pulling out all the stops and the two older Hyuugas were soaking it up.

"Thank you for your consideration and cooperation Koizumi-san," Nobuki sighed.

"It's no problem at all," she said. "I just wish I could have helped more." She finished her act with a pout.

Takashi patted her on the head. "You have done enough, I'm sure that the Fukutai will find her soon."

"Do they have a lead?" I asked.

Natsume's father shook his head. "Sadly, they don't. The Hanahime garden is the epicenter of the protective barrier that surrounds the academy, so the barrier is especially strong here. The Sight Alice can't penetrate here, so there is no trace of Aoi, but they have assured us that she is in the school and that nothing serious has happened." He took a deep breath and looked around; maybe hoping that Aoi would pop out of one of the many rose bushes that lined the Garden. "I think we had a long and tiring night." He turned to me. "Mikan, could you escort Natsume back to his dorm? Father and I will go back home as well."

I nodded my head in understanding and waited for Natsume to say his farewells before heading back to the Ceremony Hall. "We should tell our friends that we're leaving," I explained to him and he simply nodded his head. I was worried for his state of mind, but didn't want to say anything as Luna had followed us. She was still firmly glued to his arm and was cooing and whispering promises of finding Aoi, eventhough I knew that apart from giving her report, she wasn't going to do anything else to help.

When we entered the Tea Party, our group – or should I say Luna and Natsume – received a lot of curious looks; I could tell however that they hadn't heard the news of Aoi's disappearance yet. I ignored everyone as I looked around for my friends and saw them conversing seriously by a couple of couches. Not wanting to see Natsume and Luna stuck together any longer; I walked quickly in front of them.

There was a distinct burn of bile at the back of my throat ever since I saw Luna interlink her arms through his and a complementary burning emotion in my chest. All I could think about during our walk here was the scene we had in the dance floor. I still didn't know what it was all about and I was scared to think about what it could have led to, so I pushed all of my thoughts out of my mind and just focused on the crisis at hand.

Anna saw us coming first. "We heard what happened." She gave Natsume an awkward hug as Luna was still leeching off of Natsume's arm.

"She'll be alright," Mochu promised, giving him an assuring slap on the back. "Probably some of those evil cookies Anna baked took her." He yelped as Anna smacked his arm.

Ruka nodded in agreement. "We'll all help you look for her." Luna, who noticed everyone's contentious effort to ignore her, decided she needed to be somewhere where people would give her attention.

"Oh, I see Sumire. I'll talk to you later Natsume." She gave him a flirtatious wink and sauntered off. I felt everyone release an audible sigh of relief when she was out of eyesight.

Koko laughed out loud. "You should have told her that to her face, Natsume," he remarked. I looked curiously at the pair of them, but neither would share what Natsume had been thinking of regarding Luna.

I could tell that the group had questions they wanted to ask, but they could see how listless Natsume seemed, so they let us quietly excuse ourselves and we entered the chill of the outside air again. Our walk back to the dorm was quiet – whether it was because of what happened on the dance floor or what happened to Aoi, I didn't know, but it seemed neither of us could get a word out.

When we got in the hallway that separated our rooms, we still haven't said a word. I grabbed my doorknob, all prepared to take a shower and climb into bed. I was dead tired from all the events that happened tonight – it also happened to be past midnight – but I was afraid of leaving Natsume by himself. I remembered that time he heard the news of his Grandfather's hospitalization and I was scared that he would run off again.

I could hear him opening his door and I made one of my infamous split second decisions. "Hey," I called turning around. I had caught him just as he was about to shut the door. He opened his door a little wider to see what I wanted. "Can I stay with you tonight?" I didn't offer an explanation – I didn't think Natsume would appreciate a babysitter – but it looked like he didn't really need one. He stood to the side as I walked into his dorm.

I made my way over to the table by his kitchenette and took a seat while Natsume rummaged around in his closet. I unstrapped my heels and sighed as I massaged my feet – it felt good to finally have these death contraptions off of me. I gathered up my shoes and brought them back to the entrance, where Natsume had his shoes all lined up nicely on a shoe rack. I placed mine in an empty spot and was about to make my way back to the chair when my face was assaulted by a pile of clothes.

"What?" I cried, holding up a large T-shirt and some sport shorts.

Natsume nodded his head to a door on his right. "Go take a shower."

"Oh," I said and blinked. "You can go first, I'll just go back to my room and –"

"Just go Polka," he sighed, cutting me off.

I could tell he wasn't going to extract his order, so I mumbled thanks and quickly entered the bathroom. His bathroom, just like his room, was clean and uncluttered. I didn't see any hair products or cologne, which was a shame since I wanted to know what brand he used. I placed my clothes on the sink counter and gazed at myself in the mirror; wanting to engrave the beautiful me that everyone complimented tonight. I didn't want to take up too much time in here, so I began to pull the pins out of my hair, wincing as it got caught in some places. I peeled off my dress and the rest of my clothes and placed them in a nice pile on the floor.

I entered his shower and let the hot water melt off my makeup. I didn't have much on so I wasn't too hard to get everything off and then I looked around for soap. I grabbed the shampoo and began working it through my hair; I had to wash it a couple of more times to get the hair spray and wax off, and by the time I was done, the shower smelled like Natsume. I looked at the bottle and smiled, I found out what brand he uses.

I exited the room twenty minutes later, feeling refreshed. "Sorry I took so long," I apologized as I made my way over to the table and put down my clothes. "I may have used up half a bottle of your shampoo," I admitted, toweling my hair. Natsume simply rolled his eyes and got off the bed from where he was reading a manga book – the one I bought him, I noticed – and entered the bathroom.

I knew Natsume was usually the silent guy, but I was beginning to worry. I can only remember him speaking a couple of sentences after visiting the Hanahime Garden, and I wondered what was going through his mind. I walked over to his bed and lied down. I began to worry about Aoi as well. The circumstances of her disappearance were too suspicious- anything could have happened: an animal from the Northern Forest could have taken her or maybe she got lost in the labyrinth of the Garden. The Garden was a mysterious place and no one knows what goes on in any of the principals' domain. But we didn't have enough clues to go searching for her ourselves. I was glad that it was just another Alice incident, but the barrier and the lack of information means that it will take longer for the Fukutai to find her. The best we could hope for now is that the Fukutai know what they are doing or at least find more clues. I just hoped she wasn't hurt.

I heard the door open and I turned my body on my side to see Natsume walking out of the bathroom. "You're going to get my bed wet," he stated, looking at my hair that I still haven't dried yet. I simply stuck my tongue at him, causing him to roll his eyes at me again. His hair was wet and he had a towel wrapped around his neck. He had a plain white shirt on that outlined his well chiseled torso and I felt myself swallowing thickly.

He took a seat by the kitchen and proceeded to dry off his hair with his towel. We lapsed into silence once again; mostly because I was too busy oogling his arm muscles. I was seriously beginning to think that I contracted a disease. I don't remember a single instance where I have been this hyper aware of another guy before. Sure, Natsume was really good looking, but so was Ruka, and I didn't have this same feeling when I was dancing with him tonight. I decided to break the silence and my musing. "Why don't you sit here Natsume?" I asked, patting the empty space next to me on the bed.

He eyed me suspiciously. "Why?"

"So we can talk!" I said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Natsume sighed loudly; he was doing a lot of that today. "Please," I sang. He finally relented and grudgingly made his way over to the bed. "So what do you want to talk about?" I asked as soon as he sat down.

He looked at me with annoyance. "I thought you knew, since this was your idea," he accused.

"Nope," I said. I winced when Natsume leaned over and flicked me in the forehead. "People always say I talk too much anyway and you talk too little, so it's your turn to talk." I pouted.

"I don't want to talk."

"Well, you are. So start," I commanded.

Natsume looked at me intensely, and I started back with equal intensity. "Fine." He sighed - again. "Don't regret it." I promised him I wouldn't and he looked up at the ceiling to think. "Alright then," he said after a few moments, "tell me what your fear was about."

I stared at him blankly, wondering what he was going on about, until something clicked in my head – he was talking about the episode in the fear test. I'd completely forgotten the fact that Natsume was able to see what I saw. I was actually surprised that he had waited this long to question me about it. I did start to regret my decision now, but I wasn't going to back out after I just stated otherwise. "What about it?" I questioned slowly.

"Why are you so afraid of labs? Or scientists? Or whatever else that whole thing was about?"

"Sadly, I don't know the answer to any of those questions." I held up a hand against Natsume's glare. "I'm telling the truth!" I said. "As long as I can remember, I've had those dreams. I don't know why I have them, or why I'm afraid of them." This was the first time that I've ever talked about my nightmare; not even Hotaru knew about what my dreams contained. I didn't like to talk about things that I didn't have any facts about, but I noticed that as soon as I told Natsume, my chest felt lighter – like something heavy was lifted by the few words I spoke.

Natsume looked puzzled. "Is there something in your past that relates to labs?" he contemplated.

"Not as far as I can remember," I offered.

Natsume turned to face me fully. "Why do you always talk like that?"

I blinked. "Like what?" I asked, completely at a loss of what he was talking about.

"You always talk like you're avoiding something; you skirt around a topic before it goes in too deep; like what happened tonight with Yuu and Ruka. What are you hiding?"

"I'm-"I stuttered. I was surprised at how much Natsume figured out about my persona. "I'm not hiding anything." I stated, then something caught my attention. "Wait, you were there when I was talking to Yuu and Ruka?"

Natsume glared at me. "You're ignoring my question."

I huffed and decided to drop that topic – I'll just save it to embarrass him later. "I'm not hiding anything," I repeated. "It's just that I don't know." I turned and faced my back towards him. I traced patterns on his silk comforter, wondering how we ended up in this conversation – oh, that's right, I started this.

"I realize - you've been saying that for a while now," he remarked dryly. "So what is it that you don't know?"

I was quickly getting tired of this interrogation, but I participated because it kept Natsume talking. "Everything," I said. "I don't know anything." I could feel Natsume staring at my back, prompting me to keep going. I felt the words bubbling in my throat and before I knew it, I told Natsume one of my biggest insecurities. "I don't have any memories from before I was six."

Natsume waited a moment to see if I was going to add more before he started talking. "Isn't that pretty normal?" he asked. "Most people don't remember much of their memories from when they were young."

"No, it isn't like that," I explained, closing my eyes. "The first memory I have of my life is waking up in a grassy field." It was hard to put the feeling I had when I woke up, but since I started, I felt as if I had to finish it. "It was just like I was born at that time. I woke up and I existed." I rolled over onto my back so I could look at Natsume. He looked confused by the explanation that I gave him, but it looked like he was trying to follow.

"So you just woke up," he said, trying to sum up what I just said, "without knowing anything?"

I sighed. "That's the weird part," I told him. "I knew that my birthday was in January, I knew my age, I knew my name. I had all my essential knowledge."

"Except for how you ended up there or what your life was like before you woke up," Natsume finished for me. I nodded my head. "That's," he started and looked around in his head for a word, "weird."

I laughed. "That about sums up my life." Then I gasped. "Hey! You were the one supposed to be talking! I told you my deepest secrets that only Hotaru knows, so now it's your turn."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Sure there is," I prompted. I searched around for something to talk about. "Oh, I know. How about your mother?" I asked. "Can you talk about her?"

There was a long pause and I was afraid that I had stepped on a landmine, but he finally answered. "Maybe."

I sighed in relief. "Great," I said honestly. I pulled myself off the bed only to lift up the covers and snuggle back in. Natsume stayed in the same spot sitting on the bed. I turned on my side so I could see him while he talked.

He seemed to be at a loss for where to start. "I don't remember my mom that well," he began, "but I do remember that she was really warm." He looked at me to gauge my reaction and I gave him a reassuring smile. "I also know that she was really kind." Natsume stared off ahead, seemingly lost in thought. "When she had me, she knew that I had an Alice. She didn't want me going to the Academy, so my parents went into hiding."

I soaked in this new information. I knew that there were a variety of parents when it came to Alice children and I've always heard stories of two types, belonging in the opposite side of the spectrum. There were lots parents who abandoned their children because they were afraid of their powers or because of the money that the Academy pays to the parents. On the other side, there were parents who fiercely protected their children from the school that would take them away; I never thought that Natsume's parents would fall into this category and I wondered what their reasoning was. Natsume continued: "The Academy people are really persistent, so we had to switch locations plenty of time. I heard that we were on the move when mom gave birth to Aoi."

"Wow, your mom must have been a very strong woman," I commented. Just from the few words that Natsume shared, I already had a growing admiration for his mom.

Natsume nodded his head in agreement, then proceed on a sad note. "She was gone too soon. They said she died in an accident." The last word felt forced, like he didn't believe it. I didn't know what to say, so I remained quiet, appreciating the memory that Natsume shared with me.

Natsume was the first the break the silence. "Anything else?" I looked over and saw that his face was closed off – a sign that he didn't want to discuss this topic any further.

"Well, there is one thing," I slowly said. The scene on the dance floor was still in the front of my mind, and I needed to get an answer.

"Ask away," he said, waving his hand. He stood up and looked down on me. "Are you going to sleep here?" he asked suddenly.

I nodded my head. "It's already two AM – I'm too lazy to go back to my room." Natsume stood there for a moment as if contemplating something, and then he sighed and climbed in the comforter. The lights went off and the only illumination in his room came from the street lamps outside filtering in through the window. His back was facing me, but I knew he was still listening, so I asked my question. "What was that tonight? When we were dancing?"

There was a long pause and I thought that he had fallen asleep. I was about to get up and check, but his voice stopped me. "Go to sleep Polka."

I blinked. "What? You didn't answer my question." I accused.

"It's two AM and I'm too lazy," he said, shooting back the words I just said.

"Not fair!" I cried. "You need to an-" I was suddenly cut off by a hacking cough from Natsume. I waited for it to subside, so I could bother him some more, but it never did. Worry started to gnaw at me. "Are you ok Natsume?" He couldn't answer because his coughing became worse. "Natsume!" I sat up and leaned over him.

"Natsume are you alright?" My question was followed by my muffled scream as Natsume suddenly turned around and hugged my waist.

"Go to sleep, Polka." I felt the vibration of his voice in my chest and my face started to heat up.

I tried pushing him away before he heard the fast pace of my heart. "What are you doing?" I harshly whispered.

He pulled me closer against him and I screamed again. "Just stay like this," he mumbled. "I'll let you go tomorrow." He sounded exhausted and I tried looking at his face, but all I could see was the top of his head. I didn't know what was happening, but truthfully, I was growing too tired to care. So I fell asleep, vowing to take revenge tomorrow, with Natsume's hair tickling my cheek.

* * *

><p><strong>I hope you like it! I'm not too sure about the dance scene or Aoi's disappearance scene, so if you guys can give me feedback about what you thought about it, that would be great. Thanks for checking out my story!<strong>

**Urban**


End file.
